


The Big Change

by BallofKarn1



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Bad Science, Body Autonomy is a Right, Creampie, Did anyone else get southern public school sex ed?, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Incest not really but kinda, Masturbation, Multi, Mutual Masturbation, Oral Sex, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sex, Smut, Some Plot, Threesome, Transformation, Vaginal Sex, Writing characters I like making mistakes is hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:34:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 41,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26209516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BallofKarn1/pseuds/BallofKarn1
Summary: A new drug on the streets and a police raid with unexpected consequences puts Judy and Nick into the weirdest situation they've ever heard of, much less been in. Like something out of crazy science fiction. The new experience forces them to face what they want in life despite hesitation on both sides due to the difference in species. The change to their relationship doesn't come without its share of difficulties, but they'll work through it together.
Relationships: Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde, Judy Hopps/Nick Wilde
Comments: 104
Kudos: 160





	1. The Raid

It was a quiet night in the Tundratown docks. Soft moonlight gleamed off the snow lining the streets. This was a rougher part of the city, characterized by dockworkers drinking in dingy bars and wracked with petty crime in the back alleys. A burnt-out street pole stood dark over the pavement, the bulb long shot out during some fight or just as an act of vandalism. Shadows flickered over the snow.

Officers Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde were part of the small strike team. Their side of the operation consisted of smaller mammals of the force while larger officers were poised a few blocks away. It was a necessary division; an elephant or rhino was hardly capable of the stealth needed, but the larger officers would come thundering in once the targets were confirmed. 

Sergeant Fangmeyer was the largest member of the strike team. The feline had proven more than once that she was capable blending into the shadows with her striped coat, and Chief Bogo wanted a ranking officer with the team. She was surprisingly light on her footpaws, making just a small crunching as her pads hit the snow. Grizzoli and Wolfard were slightly louder than the sergeant, but the wolves were quiet enough and their noses were an effective tool. The team paused at every street corner and waited for the wolves to whiff a few times. With no new scents they turned to the smallest member. Judy was easily quieter than the wolves and the tiger; her job was to slip forward and listen with large ears twitching and turning for the slightest sound. She crouched, holding her breath. The bunny nodded and the final member ghosted in front of her. The stealthy fox moved with hardly a whisper. Judy could barely hear him and sometimes had to glance down, impressed, to double check that he was actually leaving pawprints instead of just floating over the snow. Nick would lean around the corner to check the street with his sharp eyes, give a pawsign that the coast was clear, and the sneaky group would dart forward.

They'd finally gotten a tip on the location of a major drug operation and had staked out the area for several weeks before they had enough evidence to move on it. Synthetic drugs had started popping up rapidly on the streets. Some were relatively harmless, if still illegal, and not worth the trouble of a raid like this, but more dangerous drugs had been circulating recently. Mammals were turning up in hospitals and several had died, and that was just from the drugs they recognized. Some of the victims had strange, exotic symptoms. Wolves with large patches of discolored fur. A lioness whose tail shriveled up into a little stub of a thing. A bear who grew a long, hairless tail with a rough clump of bristles on just the end. An otter with his teeth falling out and large, shell-shaped ears. All of the disfigurements were on predators; all of them victims to a new drug they called _fang_. And some of those predators had symptoms similar to the ones caused by nighthowlers: slit pupils and aggressive, savage behavior.

That was the kicker, the realization that sent a shiver through the precinct. The two predators that had gone savage and the dozen more who showed unusual aggression led to the conclusion that fang and nighthowler may have some connection. While it was rare, the disfigurements were becoming more common and of increasing concern, the threat of a return of the Nighthowler Crisis from a year past had put everyone on high alert. Bogo was able to leverage emergency funding for a task force to root out the problem and treat and support the victims. The politicians may not have cared about an addict having a heart attack in an alley, but the idea that their constituents could be attacked by savage predators again had certainly loosened the purse strings. 

The task force had confirmed their worst fears. Two weeks ago, undercover officers had been staking out a suspected production site. It was the result of weeks of tracing back the dealers to the distribution locations, even as no arrests were made. Bogo had been clear and decisive with his plan; they would find out how big the network was, cut off the head all at once, and then snap up the rest soon after. From an empty office in a building across the street they'd seen the deliveries of tanks, vats, and boxes going in and the deliveries of bundled packages going out. More than that, they'd seen the mammal overseeing it all. Coming outside just long enough to watch a delivery with a cigarette dangling loosely between his hoofed fingers... Doug Ramses...

Finding Bellwether's wanted second in command, and likely the mammal who had most enabled the Nighthowler Crisis by designing and producing the serum, had sealed the deal. They'd confirmed his continued presence at the building and begun planning. 

The strike team made it to the fence, hunched against the side of a neighboring wall. Fangmeyer crouched low and started clipping through the chain link with a small pair of shears, powerful paw flexing with each snip. Nick looked up at Judy and found the bunny already watching him. Her face was almost entirely covered between a dark balaclava and safety goggles, while he wore the same canine specific mask as the wolves that left the end of his muzzle, and therefore his nose, free. 

"Be careful," he mouthed with the barest hint of sound, but her ears twitched and it looked like she smiled with how the fabric covering her face wrinkled. She reached out and set a paw on his shoulder with a light squeeze. The fox tried not to reveal too much at the contact. The little bunny was his best friend and had become the most important mammal in his life. His feelings had grown over the last several months to something even stronger than that, but with her socially conservative upbringing he thought she'd be more likely to label him a deviant and slap him than kiss him if he ever told her. _How I wish sometimes that you were a vixen... But I love you just the way you are._ He swallowed that swell of forbidden lust and just smiled back at her.

With one last, soft clink, the sergeant slipped the shears back into her pouch and pulled the cut section of fence aside. She looked back at her team and examined them all. Wolfard and Grizzoli were solid mammals that could always be counted on. The rabbit had quickly impressed with her determination and skill, and the fox had proved a valuable, if sometimes overly snarky, addition to the force. The tigress pulled her balaclava down to her chin.

"We go in soft and quiet, nice and easy," she reminded them in a whisper. "Confirm the production site. Then we go for Ramsey. Avoid all contact until we locate the target. Radio for backup once we are in position to move on him, or if you are spotted. Ramsey is the priority, but we're expecting guards in there and I want to see them all in pawcuffs before morning. Be smart. Watch each other's backs." She recovered her muzzle and led them forward. 

They gathered around a heavy door on the back of the building. Fangmeyer waved a paw and the fox slipped to her side. She looked pointedly at the door and back to him. The fox nodded. Nick set his paws flat against the door and ran them across the surface. He pulled a set of small metal picks from his pouch, a skill he had promised had been learned as a cheap party trick with a shifty smile. He leaned his head against the door with his ear cocked. His paws twisted slowly before pausing, and he pulled open the door and waved for them to enter with a flourishing bow. The tigress rolled her eyes. _At least Hopps can keep him in check._

Judy rolled her own eyes at the cheeky fox as she followed the tigress and wolves into the warehouse. She paused at the door and fixed Nick with a stare as the tod gave an extra flourishing wave for her to proceed. Then he just smirked and looked down at her in a way that caused her to bite her lip with the now expected bloom of heat in her belly. He just really loved teasing her, and she had fallen hard for the clever fox. An impossible attraction that she could never tell him about. Growing up, she had been told that interspecies relationships were sinful. The thought of him looking down in disgust if she revealed her perverse desires, the fact that she spent most nights grinding against her fingers and moaning his name... _Nick... If only you were born a bunny..._ Shaking away the thought, not for the first time, she reached out as if she was going to give him a congratulatory bump on the chest and flicked a finger against his nose instead.

His snout twitched in slight pain before he stared down at her crossly. Judy popped her hip to the side and smirked back. Her features were disguised but she held the pose just long enough for her thought to be clear. _It's called a hustle sweetheart._ Then she was back to all business, lifting her tranquilizer with both paws and sliding into the darkened building. The door was softly closed behind them, leaving them in a darkened corner behind a row of metal lockers. The warehouse was lit by nothing more than two overhead lights that were barely on and a dim glow from somewhere on the right side. Soft, irregular clicks were the only sounds Judy could hear. It made her think of claws sneaking across the floor behind her and the bunny held back a shiver.

The sarge held her fist up. Two fingers pointed at the wolves, then to the right. All four fingers ticked up with a simple rhythm. Two more fingers at Nick and Judy followed by a point to the left. Four fingers up, counting with that same rhythm. A claw pointed at herself then also to the left. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Her paw drew a box in the air followed by a second, smaller box inside of the first. She pointed to her eyes, then to the sight on her tranquilizer rifle, then tapped her radio twice. Each officer nodded in understanding. Three mammals would draw more attention than two, and the tigress was the largest and most visible one. The bunny and fox would lead the way with the feline following and watching their backs. If they encountered a guard, they could tell her to hang back while they figured out the next move. Meanwhile, the wolves would sweep the opposite direction. They'd all check the outer walls before moving inwards, and once Ramsey was located they would call for backup. The tigress held up her paw again and counted fingers up. The four other officers darted off on the fourth count and the sergeant followed a few seconds after. 

Nick stayed a half step behind Judy as they snuck through the warehouse, clearing the row of lockers to see large metal tanks and wooden boxes crowding the floor. He could look over her head and grab the back of her tactical vest if he saw anything, while she could listen for movement in the blind spots in front of them without distraction from his own footsteps. With their height difference he could also easily aim over her ears should they find themselves in a fight.

The fox and bunny made their way deeper into the building, creeping around the storage containers. They made ample use of the shadows and hugged the walls to keep as out of sight as possible. The wall they were approaching was made up of the delivery bays with rolling steel garage doors. Judy paused at the corner, weighing whether they should keep to the wall or flit against the edge of the tank rows as they continued. They still didn't know how many mammals were in here and bumping into one in the rows would be a major mistake. On the other paw, there was little cover in the delivery bays. After a moment of hesitation, she stayed close to the wall, jumping down into the lowered drives then climbing up the other side. All they could do was trust their senses and their stealth. 

Something caught her eye when she was halfway to the last wall. There was an opening in the middle of the warehouse filled with something glittering in the dim light. The bunny stopped and looked back at Nick, gesturing to the shine. His eyes widened. 

"It's a massive chemistry set. Boilers and flasks and tubes," he softly whispered with his lips pressing against her ear. "This is the place for sure."

They both turned behind them and gave a thumbs up. Nick nodded and pointed at the set, seemingly communicating with the sergeant. It made Judy a little uncomfortable that she was unable to see the tigress at all, considering that she was supposed to be behind them by less than twenty yards. She tried to ignore the sudden thought that she hadn't seen a guard yet either.

Nick turned back and put a paw on her shoulder to guide her forward again. The rabbit beat down the fear of mammals watching them from the dark and instead focus on straining her ears for the slightest sound. 

The corner for the final wall had a staircase leading up to a second story office and rickety catwalks over the tanks on the lab floor. At least it was much easier to see without the shadows of the tanks in the way. This warehouse clearly hadn't been given proper inspection or repairs in a while. The two small mammals waited there until Fangmeyer prowled out of the shadows with a paw on her radio. Her voice crackled in their earpieces.

"Heavy team, come in. Site is confirmed, get moving. Strike team sweep the floors." The tigress pointed at the two small mammals then up the stairs. Any further instructions were cut off by a loud yell of shock and anger from across the warehouse.

"Contact!" Wolfard yelled, his voice both coming through the radio and echoing in the warehouse. It was followed by the immense boom of a gunshot. It was easy to think that gunshots sounded as they did in movies, cute little pops rattling with every firefight. Almost like an over eager kit with a sheet of bubble wrap. In reality, a gunshot, especially from a big gun, was a small explosion that left your ears ringing and thudded heavily if you were close enough. Or, as in their case, inside an enclosed space. Nick winced and Judy slapped her paws over her ears in pain. More gunshots shook the air.

"Shit!" The Lieutenant grabbed her radio again. "Heavy team get your tails in here **now**! Shots fired!" She made eye contact with her two subordinates. "Get up there and find Ramsey!" Fangmeyer roared even as she started moving.

Judy surged up the stairs with Nick close behind as the sergeant shot across the floor, a particularly unlucky ram stepping out from the rows of tanks to search for the source of her shout only to be tackled by her brawny form. The rabbit darted for the office once she'd reached the top of the stairs, gritting her teeth and dropping her ears back against the continued gunfire.

One of the office doors opened and she raised her tranq. A shaggy ram stepped outside and was immediately hit in the chest with three darts, two from her weapon and one shooting over her head from her partner's. He staggered at the contact, eyes widening in shock before collapsing to the metal walkway.

"Freeze, ZPD!" Judy wasted no time jumping over the sedated ram into the office and nearly got brained for it. It was only her lightning quick reaction speed that let her duck under the flying bottle that crashed against the wall where her head had been. Burning pain lanced through her ear where a shard of glass sliced a hot line across her fur. Nick grabbed her vest and yanked her back out onto the catwalk just as another bottle shattered against the door. 

"We go in on three," Judy hissed, pointedly ignoring the wetness she could feel dripping down the back of her head. Her need to keep her ears free for the stealthy part of this mission had made it so she couldn't wear a full coverage helmet and right now she was regretting that. More gunshots were echoing through the warehouse. The fox looked at her with concerned eyes but nodded. She counted down and threw herself through the door.

Judy rolled across the floor to take cover behind a desk across the room, peeking over the furniture only to duck as another piece of glass was chucked her way. This did allow Nick to lean through the door with his tranq up, aiming at the familiar, heavyset white ram who was pulling bottled chemicals off a shelf to throw. His nose itched with the acrid scent of the wooden doorframe corroding from the contents of the second bottle. _Shit, that's not good. I'll have to double check Carrots's cut._

"Oy! Doug! You've been a baaaaaad mammal!" Ramses turned at his shout only to duck down, Nick's dart getting caught in his wool but not hitting him directly. 

"Oh my gods, a pun! Now? Are you serious?" Judy screamed furiously. She raised up and fired a few darts of her own, one of them painfully cracking off a hooved finger that was reaching up for another bottle. Ramses flung one more bottle at her, glass exploding across the desk, before he apparently decided to cut his losses and scrambled through another door at his end of the office.

"At least he won't throw anything more at you, so, you're welcome!" Nick cried even as he started running after the ram while the bunny reloaded. "Better check the label on that bottle, Fluff, and wash out your cut ASAP!" 

The fox aimed his gun while sprinting and fired three more darts, but two missed and the last also tangled in the sheep's thick wool. He growled in frustration and holstered the weapon before sprinting after the ram. Ramses wasn't as fast as Nick was, but he had a small lead as they ran out over the warehouse floor. 

Nick's ears slapped back to his head when he finally caught up with the ram. It wasn't that he was weak for a fox, but... strength wasn't exactly his strength, so to speak. He dove for the sheep's legs with a growl, bracing himself for the criminal to struggle. Ramses tripped on the fox wrapped around his ankles and kicked out, one hoof banging painfully off the officer's shoulder. Nick's grip slipped with that jolt of pain and his vision swam when the next kick clipped his chin. Ramses was getting free, wriggling and kicking the increasingly bruised fox off of him. He staggered to his hooves and started running.

Nick bit down on his lip to steady himself by focusing on that sharp pain over the dull pounding in his head. He had fumbled to redraw his tranq since he first tackled the ram, correctly guessing that he wouldn't be able to overpower the much larger herbivore. He had hoped to sink a dart into the ram while they were still tangled together, instead of taking aim at the sheep's back while he tried to ignore the pain from the beating he had taken. He had to aim with one paw; there was a sharp tweak of pain when he tried to move his left arm. _Jeez, nothing is ever easy, is it?_ The sheep's thick wool had caught several of his darts, but that was partly an issue of angles. He smirked at the retreating figure. It may not have been a nice thing to do, but with pain coursing through his battered form and such an **ample** target? He didn't hesitate. _Sorry not sorry Doug. Sometimes justice is a real pain in the tail._

Ramses only made it three steps before a sharp pain bit into his right butt cheek. The ram staggered, mind swimming. If he could only make it to the fire escape on the other side of the building, to the motorcycle he hid specifically for... The chemicals flowing through his veins had other ideas, and his eyes rolled back in his head.

Nick smirked. _Worked like a charm. Damn, I’m good._ His smug smile slipped when Ramses stumbled full speed into the railing, the rusty support holding the catwalk up snapping under the stress. The world tilted when the metal underneath him collapsed. The ram fell, slamming against a tank and landing on the floor below with a sickening crack, but Nick was just able to snag at the railing with his non-injured paw. The portion of catwalk that was still stable was just beyond him; he had been lying right on the edge where the fallen catwalk panel met one that was still holding. He reached out with his free paw but hissed in pain at the strain on his shoulder. His arm fell limply. Nick doubted it would bear his weight. Which meant...

The fox looked down and immediately wished he hadn't. A fall like Ramses' down to the floor wasn't an enticing prospect, but it was still preferable to where he would land. An open vat lay beneath him, filled with bluish liquid. His ears plastered back against his skull in fear. The drug had nighthowler-like properties... It wasn't unreasonable that they had a big tank of... The fox swallowed, a slight whimper sneaking out of his throat. His fingers were slipping. How many of his friends and colleagues was he about to attack? Would Judy... Nick slammed his eyes shut when he lost his grip, only to jerk to a halt a few inches down.

"Nick! Hang on!" Judy screamed. The bunny had dived for him and just snagged his wrist with both paws. He weighed too much for her to stay upright, he should have dragged her down with him, but Judy had kicked back and caught the railing with her heel. The bunny had also gotten a bit lucky and her vest caught on the edge of the stable catwalk flooring. The material stretched, stiches threatening to pop, and the muscles in her leg stood out as she tried to keep him from falling even as she hung upside down with her body uncomfortably jammed into the rail. Her eyes were wide, flickering behind the fox to the pool of dangerous blue liquid. Blood was sluggishly running down her ear.

"Just hang on. I’ve got you,” she gritted through her teeth. "Sarge! We need help!" There was a significant amount of pain in her yell.

Understanding rolled through Nick at the same time as another dull throb of pain. "C-Carrots..." Judy looked down.

"Don't worry, partner. I won’t drop you." Her leg was starting to shake with the strain, but she forced her voice steady. _So brave..._

"Carrots," Nick said more confidently. "You have to drop me."

Her mouth flapped soundlessly. "I-I can't! Nick! That could be nighthowler!" A stitch popped in her vest and she slipped forward a tiny bit before it held again.

"I know. But if you hang on, we both fall. If that's nighthowler... Judy, if it's nighthowler then you'll be trapped down there with me." Blood dripped from her ear and splattered across his nose and lips, he could taste the metallic tang and tried to ignore it because he couldn't look away from her. "Drop me, and then dart me the second I climb out."

"B-but," she stammered.

"Carrots," Nick growled more firmly. "If I go savage, I want you as far away from me as possible. You **cannot** fall with me. I couldn't live with myself if... if I..."

"No, no there has to - has to be another way." She was still thinking, still trying to find a way out of this, but another stitch popped in the vest. There just wasn't any time.

"I'm counting on you to be accurate, Judy." He found it in himself to smile. 

"Nick! I can't!" Her eyes were wide and she looked so scared. The fox took a moment to fantasize that the caring fear painted across her face was more than just that of a scared friend.

"Judy. I trust you." Nick wrenched his wrist to break her grip and slipped from her paws.

Time seemed to slow down. Judy's mouth was open, yelling something. Maybe his name; it was hard to tell when a thousand seconds passed before she could even get out the first syllable. His eyes flickered. The sergeant was halfway up the stairs, wide eyes watching him and body dangling in midair over the steps, powerful thighs flexing. She would have been there in maybe a dozen seconds more, but that would have been too late. Even now, the straps over Judy's shoulders snapped just from the force of the fox freeing himself. She slid forward again, but the bunny was able to hold up her own weight just with her heel on the railing. He caught sight of Grizzoli rolling around with a zebra, lips frozen in a snarl. Pennington was wading into the fray with her arms wrapping a moose on one side and another powerfully built ram on the other in a crushing hug. Clearly there were more guards than they had thought, and he felt a surge of relief that the heavy team had already made it. It meant Judy would be safe from any more of the dangerous criminals.

Judy... She was still watching him. Still crying out. The fox was struck by how beautiful she was as he sunk away. A tactical angel on the mountaintop as he spiraled into the abyss. He managed to find the time to roll his eyes. _Good gods, I'm a sappy dork when I'm terrified._

The tank's contents were cold when his back splashed in and time came rushing back. The liquid was light, much thinner than water, and he dropped through with almost no resistance to slam against the metal bottom painfully. His pained gasp flooded his muzzle with floral narcotic, and he tried to push out the mouthful without swallowing any more. The liquid was far less dense than water and standing was less like swimming than it was like climbing to his footpaws in heavy air. He couldn't paddle to the top and could barely see anything through the blue haze.

_Up..._

Nick bunched his legs, sore muscles burning in protest, and jumped. His first attempt has his paw breaking the surface but not by enough. Panic flooded him not at the thought of going savage, but at the realization that he may drown in this tank before he can climb out. He forced his limbs to bend deeper and muscles to flex harder, springing off the bottom with as much strength as he could muster. The fox slapped his paw forward and just caught the lip of the tank. Ignoring the burning pain in his shoulder, Nick forced his left arm up and grabbed the lip. The tod scrabbled and kicked, finally lifting himself up and over the rim of the tank to wetly flop down the side and splat onto the floor. He vomited, coughing and spitting as he tried to purge every drop of the drugs from his system, but the fox knew he had been down too long. He got a mouthful of it, the liquid soaked into his skin and eyes and ears. If even a small pellet of the stuff was enough to drive a polar bear savage, then he was terrified at what the dose he just got would do. But his thoughts were interrupted by a stab of pain in his neck. His paw ran to his throat and found a dart jutting out of his flesh right above his tactical vest. The fox looked up.

Judy had clambered back onto the catwalk, tranquilizer aimed at him with steady paws. Tears glimmered behind her goggles, but she still somehow looked resolute under her mask. Nick smiled.

"Nice shootin', cute 'un." He couldn't tell if she even heard him with the ruckus still going on in the warehouse, and the world crumbled into darkness as he collapsed.

\------------------

Chief Adrian Bogo made a point to never put his officers in a situation he would not put himself. As often as he could be, he was the first through the door when arresting a murderer, raiding an underground fighting ring, or even responding to a previously unheard-of report of a savage mammal. It was why he personally led the heavy team on their rumbling charge down the street when Sergeant Fangmeyer called for backup with gunshots cracking in the background. Bogo also insisted on being in front for another important reason. Right now, his officers were in danger, and he didn't want any mammals to get in his way.

Pennington, McHorn, Rhinowitz, and Krumpanski all outweighed him, but the buffalo was 1,300 pounds of solid muscle with a burning rage that currently made him the most dangerous mammal sprinting down the asphalt. The next largest mammals on the force made up the rest of the charge, the four biggest up front with Bogo the tip of the spear. The warehouse loomed before him, steel garage doors blocking him from getting to his officers. 

They may as well have been so much tissue paper. With a roar, Bogo lowered his head and clenched the muscles in his neck. His boss crunched right through the steel, his armor-clad bulk crashing after to tear a massive hole in the obstacle. The rest of the heavy team followed, led by the largest members of the force tearing similar holes in the other doors. The buffalo was immediately screaming orders and dividing up the mammals behind him to sweep the building and restrain all suspects. The ZPD was well trained and immediately followed his commands as the chief led the way down one of the rows between the storage tanks. 

The first suspect he saw was a water buffalo. Apparently, Ramses had gone away from Bellwether's sheep only philosophy. The other bull snorted and made the mistake of setting his feet to rush back at the charging chief of police. Bogo lowered his head again and the plate of bone covering his skull cracked against the water buffalo's considerably less protected head. Hardly losing any momentum, he swept one meaty arm across to throw the dazed bull to the side and knelt to cuff the perp. The chief barked an order and a subordinate finished the arrest while he looked up for any new threats.

The raid was quickly dissolving into chaos with some of the suspects fleeing while others tried to fight back against the police and were quickly subdued. He allowed himself a grim smile, knowing that more officers were surrounding the exits at the other side of the warehouse and that there was nowhere for them to escape. With luck, they'd snagged the brains of the cartel as well as a sizeable portion of its muscle. His good mood was interrupted by a flash of blue. One of his newest and most promising, if certainly most annoying, officers was kneeling on the floor vomiting his guts out in a spreading pool of blue liquid before he jerked, looked upwards, and collapsed. 

Bogo growled angrily and checked the area for any more guards before hustling forward. A half-heard noise in the clamor gave him pause and he followed the fox's momentary stare to see his lone rabbit officer with her tranq in her paws waving at him. Her words were drowned out by the struggling of a moose locked under Officer Pennington's arm as the elephant kept a ram tightly tucked against her other side. The buffalo calmly drew his own weapon and darted the flailing mammal's shoulder. The moose sagged, and the area quieted. Somewhat.

"Chief!" Hopps frantically called from the catwalk. "Chief! Nick, he-he fell in! It's nighthowler!"

The bull rumbled angrily before turning and thumbing his radio so hard he nearly broke it. "Medics! Quarantine team! Officer down with NH exposure, get in here!" This was why it paid to be prepared.

The emergency team had followed in the wake of the heavies but stayed outside. Now they rushed in, tending to officers and perps alike. Three medics in full hazmat gear ran up pushing two gurneys loaded down with supplies. The equipment was quickly stacked for distribution throughout the warehouse, leaving the rolling beds free for the badly injured. Two masked mammals made to shift the unconscious fox onto one when the medic at his head paused and reached a paw down to tug a tranq dart out of the unconscious officer. The plexiglass hidden muzzle turned to the chief and Bogo rumbled in displeasure, scrubbing a hoof across his face.

"We'll deal with that later, now get him on an ambulance!" He looked up again at his rabbit subordinate. "Hopps! Front and center!"

The bunny scrambled across to the stairs, slipping past and quickly followed by his sergeant on the stairs. The tigress kept a few steps back while the bunny came to a rigid standstill in front of him. Looking down, he felt most of his anger wash away. Judy's goggles were half-filled with tears and blood was leaking down the side of her head. Bogo snapped and another medic stepped in to quickly check the doe with a few questions before removing her goggles, sanitizing the cut, and wrapping the base of her ear with a bandage. 

"Tell me what happened," he said as calmly as he could. Now wasn't the time for yelling. 

"Upon hearing gunshots, Officer Wilde and myself proceeded up the stairs at Sergeant Fangmeyer's direction to locate the primary," the rabbit said with robotic precision. "Primary resisted arrest and fled. Officer Wilde eventually subdued the suspect, but his momentum broke a ceiling support and a portion of the catwalk fell. Officer Wilde was falling and I..." Here her voice stuttered a little. "I tried to catch him but couldn't. Officer Wilde fell into a tank of suspected nighthowler and I tranquilized him as a preventative measure. I... I shot him..."

The bull nodded and reached down to clap a hoof on her shoulder. He tried to keep it light, but the bunny's knees still bent at the sudden impact. "Good work, Hopps." She looked up at him with tears running down her face. The bunny was harder on herself than anyone else could be. "You acted decisively to prevent possible injury or worse to yourself, your fellow officers, and the suspects. It was a hard decision, but you made the right choice. Wilde is in-route to Savanna General, where we have arranged a stock of nighthowler antidote for exactly this sort of emergency." She already knew this; he knew she knew this. Contingency measures had been a large part of the raid planning, but sometimes in the heat of a firefight it was easy to forget things. Even now she was nodding in recollection. "You made the right call. Dismissed."

The rabbit saluted and trotted off, and his second-in-command approached.

"Report."

"Strike team plan went smoothly until contact was made and shots fired," the tigress growled, her tail lashing from side to side as she stared down the path the fox had been taken. "We immediately called for backup and I ordered Hopps and Wilde to clear the upper level while I moved to support Grizzoli and Wolfard. The majority of the guards were engaged in a poker game in the back half of the warehouse. I darted a few, distracting them long enough for Grizzoli and Wolfard disengage. Based on the noise, the catwalk came down at about the same time the heavy team hit the garage. From there it's pretty much what Hopps said. She called for help and I saw them dangling off the catwalk, but he fell before I could make it. When Wilde crawled out, she darted him."

The bull snorted loudly. An officer darting one of their own was reason for extra paperwork, even if it was justified. "Did we get Ramses?"

Fangmeyer turned her head and pointed. Two medics were rushing the sheep to the garage on another gurney, a thick wad of bandages wrapped around his skull. The noise in the warehouse had finally died down as the fighting was replaced by the sound of multiple arrests being made.

"We were expecting a half-dozen guards at most. Any idea why there were so many?" He could see at least twenty mammals in pawcuffs. It was a good thing they planned to come in overwhelming numbers. Exceedingly overwhelming numbers. Adrian Bogo believed in putting out a fallen candle with a bucket of water.

"My guess? Poker night. There's three tables and several pretty large stacks of bills back there. Bad luck on our part." She shrugged her striped shoulders and nodded. "Or good luck. I recognize a fair number of faces from the recon briefings. We may have snagged half of them."

That good news was slightly soured by hearing of the illegal gambling. _Great,_ he thought, _a lot more paperwork to finish tomorrow._

"Right. I expect a full report by noon. Let's get these mammals down to the precinct for processing. I've got to get the distributor raids organized. Dismissed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting a new story that's somewhat different than my usual stuff, but there will still be plenty of my usual Wildehopps smut. So if you're looking for Judy and Nick to engage in some kinky intimacy then that will be coming by the bucketful. I have already written tens of thousands of words of this story and will be posting the pieces occasionally as I finish and edit chapters as well as write new ones. I'm just really sad to see unfinished or discontinued works and don't want to be one of those authors. At the very least I can guarantee that this will have a lot more chapters coming because many of them are already written.
> 
> Also, in the current environment I find it very hard to write police procedural stuff. At the moment, this chapter is basically the only one like that and after this it's pretty much just relationship drama. I've found it difficult to write good police when we can see evidence almost daily of police officers abusing their authority, especially since Zootopia as a movie is baby's first introduction to racism. I try my best to write the ZPD as a good police force, but there was that whole moment in the movie when Bogo says "You think I'm gonna believe a fox?" It's hard to paint that as anything other than blatant racism. That's about all I'll let my politics come into this story. I don't think it should be controversial to say that we can recognize that black Americans are subject to a different set of rules than white Americans when it comes to the criminal and justice systems and that we should strive to correct this difference, but it also feels like some people are trying to make it controversial to say fuck Nazis and race supremacists. Oh, by the way and in case it wasn't clear: fuck Nazis and fuck white supremacists.


	2. The Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick wakes up from his drug induced state. Things continue mostly as usual, until something happens. Something terrible. Something wonderful? Something impossible. What the hell is going on?

The first thing he felt was throbbing pain in his skull like the worst hangover he'd ever experienced. Worse than tequila, worse than dirt cheap vodka, and somehow even worse than the homemade green apple moonshine someone had passed around a party years ago in a much different period of his life. His eyes cracked open only to slam shut when the light of the room sent lances of agony directly into his brain. Nick let out a pained croak made worse by how dry his throat felt. The fox steeled himself for another peek, spotting a glass of water at his bedside that looked oh so tempting. He raised a paw but immediately flinched and lowered it. The tod had forgotten how hard he was kicked in the shoulder, and his left arm was bundled up in a sling against his chest. His movement and small pained noise drew the attention of the other occupant of the room.

"Nick!" A voice cried out far too loudly for his taste at the moment, but he found himself quickly forgiving the owner when they lifted the glass to his lips and tilted it to let sweet, soothing water trickle down his throat. His vision stabilized further to find Judy holding the glass and giving him a relieved smile. He drained the water and she set the glass down before buzzing the nurse.

His throat still felt raw even if it was more manageable now. Mammals in white physician’s coats and scrubs came in, asking him questions that hurt his throat to answer, taking his pulse, and generally giving him a quick inspection. Nick was never one who enjoyed being fussed over, but with how much he hurt there was nothing he could do but lay there and wait for them to finish.

"Alright then Officer Wilde," said his... doctor, he assumed? Like, was he assigned one or was there a rotation of mammals to watch him? He guessed that he’d never been in a hospital before, both through good luck and through not having health insurance until recently. He was a little loopy from what he assumed was painkillers, and the fox had to blink and refocus on the still-speaking deer. "We administered the nighthowler antidote in your sleep and you have showed no signs of any savage state. How do you feel?"

"Like shit," he managed to growl.

"Hmm, yes," the deer mumbled thoughtfully, tapping a pen against the chart on his clipboard. "You do have quite a few bruises and a strained shoulder. It should clear within a few days, but we'll provide you with some pain medication to get through the worst of it. I need to go contact your superiors that you’ve awoken, but we're right outside if you need anything."

With the doctor gone, Nick was finally able to look at the only other mammal in the room. Judy was wringing her paws with tears dotting the corners of her eyes, yet she was grinning and almost laughing in relief. It looked like she hadn't showered since the raid, but she had found the time to change from tactical gear to a button up shirt and jeans. Other than her rough-looking fur and the bandage wrapped around her ear she looked fine. He was glad she hadn’t been hurt. The fox opened his arms with a smile and a grey blur hit him in the chest as the doe practically threw herself at him. The bunny's momentum put her in his lap, and he rubbed his paw up and down her back as she hugged him. It felt like she was trying to stop herself from squeezing the living daylights out of him. He had to shift his injured arm a little to get comfortable.

"You're okay," she said hoarsely. It sounded like she had been crying and he gently stroked her ears.

"It was a nice shot," Nick said. "Remind me not to play a paintball game against you."

Judy's head whipped up to fix him with a stare. "Don't be flippant about this," she chided. "Going savage isn't a joke."

His smile turned sad. "I never said it was. But that actually reminds me. You have to take better care of yourself."

"M-me?" Judy spluttered indignantly, ears raising up.

"Yes, you. You nearly fell too! Don't go getting yourself hurt just to help me!" He couldn't fully keep the stress from his voice. “You would have been trapped with a savage fox if you fell in with me.”

The bunny glared at him. "I don't regret catching you for a second. Besides, you're the one who tried to tackle a mammal twice your weight!" This wasn't exactly how Nick wanted this conversation to go. Pissing her off was never the goal. The fox huffed in a deep breath.

"I... It was a poor judgement call, okay? But I wanted to make sure we caught Ramses. He was the main point of the whole thing."

"Then you should have darted him or called out his position on your radio. Or did you forget that we had the building surrounded? He beat you like a drum, what if it had been worse? Hell, you could have waited for me! I would have been right behind you in a second!”

The fox winced; in the heat of the moment he may have forgotten about the perimeter their coworkers set and Judy behind him. It had been a stressful situation and perhaps he could admit that he hadn’t made the best decision.

"He-his wool kept catching the darts!” She stared him down unflinchingly. “Alright, alright... It wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done. I didn't wait because I didn't want him to get away. But my point still stands," he said firmly. "If you had fallen into the nighthowler with me... How about from now on, you think a little more about your own safety, and I'll try to be more careful about which mammals I try to take down by paw?"

Judy's lips were still drawn tight as she stared at him, but her face relaxed ever so slightly. "You can't expect me to do nothing if you're in danger."

"I wouldn't expect you to," he chuckled. The fox pulled her back into the hug. She fought against it for a moment before wrapping her arms back around his neck. "I just don't want you to get hurt, okay?"

The tension was draining out of her. "I... I'll try, but only if you promise to be more careful." Her arms tightened around him again as she relaxed against his chest.

"I promise, Fluff… And maybe agree to not shoot me again," the fox teased.

Judy jerked up with a blush staining her face. "You-you told me..." Cheeks red, her brows drew down and she leaned back into the hug. "Jerk. Fine. I promise to not shoot you again." He could almost hear her smirk. "...Unless you really deserve it."

The fox got a nice belly laugh from her comment that dissolved into a wince and a hiss. It hurt to laugh, so he settled back to also enjoy the hug. A knock had the two mammals pulling apart. Chief Bogo's distinctive looming silhouette blocked the window of the door before it swung open. His eyes flickered between the two mammals just a foot apart, Judy still kneeling on Nick's bed.

"Wilde,” he nodded. “Feeling better?"

Nick shrugged. "Reasonably so. All things considered.”

"Good enough." The bull sighed heavily. "Damned nighthowlers... You're on paid medical leave for a week, longer if you show any hint of going savage."

"But... I got the antidote. Am I not okay?" Truthfully a week off didn't sound bad, but going savage was a thought the fox didn't want to imagine and frankly had thought he was safe from.

"True. But we don't know exactly what you were dosed with. We're still running tests in the lab to figure out what it was. What we can say is it wasn't pure nighthowler. You got a full body coating without showing any signs of savagery, and in every report I've seen, the afflicted mammal's mental state degraded immediately. You didn’t appear to be going savage, you just threw up a bunch before Hopps darted you and you passed out. Which reminds me... Hopps, you're on paid leave for a week as well while we process the incident." Judy looked ready to jump to her footpaws in protest, but the buffalo held up a large hoof and his voiced turned stern. "No arguments. It's standard protocol. Just keep your head down while we sort out and process everything. I'm not expecting anything negative to come from it; I've already gone through your bodycam footage. It’s standard protocol to run an internal review when something like this happens."

The bunny slumped down dejectedly, and the fox put a paw on her shoulder to give a reassuring squeeze. Bogo paused before continuing. A noticeable twinge of discomfort came to the buffalo's voice.

"Wilde, we will need to discuss your, ahhh... your accommodations for this period."

Nick just gave him a curious look. He had a home. Not a particularly nice one, but his apartment served his needs just fine.

"Given the uncertain nature of the drug and it's possible effects, it has been... _suggested_ to me that you should spend the week in a cell at ZPD headquarters as a precaution.” Bogo made a face like he had eaten a lemon whole.

The fox's ears flattened to his skull and his jaw dropped, but it was the rabbit beside him who burst out angrily.

"What?! That's not fair! He didn't go savage, **and** he already got the antidote! And you want to throw him in prison!" The doe did jump to her footpaws this time. The massive buffalo loomed over the rabbit without trying but she stared up at him defiantly without backing down. Like she’d be willing to take this argument to the paw-to-paw training ring if need be, size difference be damned. 

"Hopps!" Bogo shouted before taking a deep breath to calm himself. "Hopps... Think about it. He needs to be monitored for his protection and to avoid situations where he could hurt someone. Putting him in a cell for a few days would allow us to do that."

"I... But..." Her jaw flapped a moment, but then her eyes steeled with determination. "I'll do it. I can watch him. He can stay with me for the week."

Bogo blinked in surprise. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'll watch him, and I can buy all the groceries and everything. He can keep isolated in my apartment that way,” she said resolutely.

"Judy," Nick murmured. "But what if... What if I-"

"Then I'll dart you again!” Angrily frustrated purple eyes flashed at him. “And I'll lock you in jail myself if that happens!" Her fists and ears were shaking. "But I will **not** let you be put in a cell for no good reason, not when you haven't done anything! All the other mammals who went savage and received the antidote were allowed to recover in the hospital and then go home. They weren't thrown in prison for it!" The bunny shot a positively venomous glare at her superior. "Is it because he's a fox?"

The bull grimaced. He didn’t like this anymore than she did, even if his temper was rising at her attitude. "There are certain... mammals of influence that expressed that opinion after they found out his species, yes." Judy looked ready to explode but Nick just smiled a sad, weary little crook of the lips. The chief scrubbed a hoof across his face. He could see the compromise that needed to be made. "Truthfully, I wasn't too happy about it, so if you're willing to watch him for a week... I can argue for that. He'll have a trained mammal there just in case something goes wrong."

"I'm sure." Nick felt a swell of affection at the determination in her voice. 

"Good. Personally, I think their fears are a pile of crap, so I much prefer this over throwing one of my officers in a cell for no reason." The buffalo headed for the door, pausing with his hoof on the handle. "Oh, and... Hopps, Wilde? Good work. The both of you. I'm glad you're safe.”

They were alone again, a fox in a hospital gown and a bunny in beaten plaid. She was still ramrod straight with her ears quivering in indignation but all he could do was stare at her in awe. Nick slipped his good arm around her waist and yanked her into a fierce hug.

"Thank you."

She squeezed him back twice as hard and nuzzled against him slightly, the tension finally draining out of her.

"I'll call the doctor back in and then let's get you out of here... You could really use a shower."

"You don't exactly smell like a spring rose yourself, Fluff." She squawked and swatted at him indignantly, but he only chuckled and hugged her harder. The fox was nearly overwhelmed with relief. This could have gone so much worse.

The deer returned for one final checkup, holding a bottle with a pawful of pain pills. “Remember, this is serious pain medication. Advole will work for most of your bruises, so only take one if you are really hurting. If you do take one you absolutely cannot drink alcohol that day.”

“Yes sir,” Nick answered. That wouldn’t be too hard. He wanted a nap more than he wanted a beer right now.

“Good.” He turned to the rabbit. “Officer Hopps, here’s my on-call number. Call me if anything happens or if you have any questions.”

“Thank you, doctor.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll leave so Officer Wilde can get dressed. We’ll have a wheelchair outside the door to take him to your car.”

“Aw, c’mon doc,” Nick griped. “Is that really necessary?”

The deer didn’t budge on the issue. “Standard procedure with mammals who have been sedated. Besides, do you think you could walk out of here right now under your own strength?”

A fresh throb of pain rolled through the fox. “…Fair enough.”

\------------------

The new normal was really just kind of like the old normal, only if their weekend movie binges and sleepovers lasted all week. Judy kept a sharp eye on Nick, the fox almost tempted to growl at her except for the fact that she'd probably immediately dart him. He really didn’t want to wake up in the hospital again; those hospital gowns were so drafty. There was also the fact that he didn't want to scare her and desperately didn't want to consider that whole _he still might go savage_ thing. She left him unsupervised only to go buy groceries, and the two mammals spent their time playing games, watching movies, and even testing out new recipes. It wasn't like Nick could really complain about spending time with his best friend he was crushing on. Even if spending all of this extra time with Judy revealed a serious lack of classic movie knowledge. He had thought she just hadn't heard of the less well-known films, but she was completely unfamiliar with some of the best as well.

"I don't know what to tell you. I've never heard of it," Judy said as she stirred a pot with a large spoon.

"Unbelievable," Nick gasped in mock horror, briefly turning away from the zucchini he was slicing. He’d been able to remove the arm sling after the first day, but he still didn't want to cut himself by using a knife without looking. "Practically criminal. _Bull and Tod's Excellent Adventure_ is a masterpiece of the cinematic arts."

The bunny rolled her eyes and tapped the spoon dry before resting the messy end on a paper towel. They were making a vegetable dish cooked in tomato sauce for dinner, with a single chicken breast for Nick. "Alright, keep your fur on. I'll watch it. What's the plot about?" She put a bag of popcorn into the microwave, as they’d agreed on a movie while they waited for dinner to finish in the oven.

"Two radical dudes have to travel through time to meet historical figures so that they can pass a history presentation, allowing them to save the future with the power of rock and roll,” Nick said while layering zucchini, eggplant, and cheese in a casserole dish.

The only sound for several seconds was the microwave whirring. "They save the future with rock and roll," Judy said slowly. "And time travel."

"Also by always being excellent to one another." He moved the dish over to the stove top.

She shook her head as if in disbelief. "And they have to pass a history presentation first.” The bunny ladled sauce onto the sliced veggies.

Nick tore a sheet of foil to cover the dish. "Just the most important history presentation of all time."

"What drugs were the writers on?"

"I dunno," Nick shrugged. "It was the eighties, so probably cocaine, but based on the dialogue weed is the smarter bet."

"Gods above, another eighties movie," she muttered, checking that the bag in the microwave was inflating. "You know there are other decades, right? Nearly three full ones since then just chock full of movies to pick from."

"Of course, it's just that so many of the good ones were made before the nineties." Nick put a paw on her back and leaned in close, waving his free paw in front of them as if describing an elaborate scene. "You kids wouldn't understand. I'm helping to expand your horizons while keeping the proud and sacred tradition of watching eighties movies alive with the youths. I've heard it said that the keys to saving the world are hidden within the treasured films of that bygone era. _The Breakfast Cub. Weekend at Bearnie's. Dolittle's Shop of Horrors_. All of them holy films. Divine even."

"Mm-hmm." Judy rolled her eyes again, biting down a chuckle at the fox's excessively flamboyant actions and hyperbolic words. "Fine. I'll watch it if it'll help you exorcise your eighties' demons, but that means I'm making you watch some movies made this millennium next. Starting with Jane Pawsten."

“I can handle that,” Nick said. He put the covered casserole and a separate baking sheet with a chicken breast on it into the oven. “Unless you’re so _prejudiced_ as to think I’m too _pride_ -ful to enjoy it.”

“Oh gods,” Judy groaned. “I almost wish you were still drugged out of your mind.”

It was almost like a little vacation... Until he started feeling sick a few days later.

Three days in and all that had happened so far was he kind of felt like he was in a very particular kind of jail. Not exactly an unpleasant one, just the kind where he had a reasonable amount of freedom as long as he didn’t leave the apartment. And, oh yeah, he was in love with the jailor. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t good. They were halfway through one of the _Fast and the Furious_ movies with a pizza in the oven when he felt a chill. More than that, he started shivering. Judy was warm against his side, but he had to ask for a blanket because the rest of him felt ice cold all of a sudden. He wrapped it around himself but it didn't help. His head swam. 

"Nick?" Judy asked.

"Uhhh… I don't feel so good." 

Perhaps understandably, the bunny stood and moved towards the counter where her tranquilizer gun sat oh so conspicuously. That was good. Being cautious was good. Judy getting ready to shoot him was a good thing. Even if his heart started pounding at the realization that this could be it, that he might be going savage and that she may have to dart him again. 

"How badly do you feel?" Judy asked carefully. She stood with her feet shoulder width and knees slightly bent, clearly ready to dodge to either side should he attack. That was fine. It was smart. No need to focus on how much the thought hurt.

"Cold. Wait, hot." Nick threw off the blanket and dragged his claws through his fur. "I'm burning up. I'm so hot, Carrots." He was panting, his skin on fire.

"Okay... How about you hop in the shower to cool off and I'll call the doctor?" The rabbit didn't move forward to help him when he staggered to his feet. Much the opposite, she took another backward step toward the counter. “Just take it easy, Nick,” she said calmingly. He couldn't blame her but didn't have the time to think about it when his fur was on fire. _Godsdamnit,_ he thought bitterly.

"J-Judy..." Nick gritted his teeth. "Bar the door with something heavy and get your gun." He only whined a little when he darted for her bathroom, trying his best not to hold back tears. He was about to go savage and attack his best friend, the mammal he was in love with. Without even telling her that… The fox slammed the door and locked it, cranked the shower to ice cold, stripped off, and crawled in. If he was too cold to move, he would be easier to dart, easier to stop when he broke down the door and tried to kill and eat the bunny in the other room. But he was still so hot! Gods alive, he was burning! Frigid water splashed down but it was all he could do to scrub his claws through his fur to get every inch of his skin soaked with cold water.

He was roasting alive! Fire raced under his fur and the cold water barely soothed the burn at all. His godsdamned bones hurt from the lava flowing under his skin! Something heavy thunked against the door and he could hear Judy speaking into her phone, but he couldn't focus on her words over how hard he was scratching himself. The fox could swear he was yanking his fur out with the deep clawing, but each painful scratch let cooling water sooth his feverish flesh. With his eyes shut, he was unable to see exactly how much orange and white fur was circling the drain.

"...just said he was cold then that he was hot. He's in the shower now... I don't know, hold on."

Knuckles rapped against the door. "Nick?"

Half his body was cool, half was still molten hot. "I'm-I'm still here."

"He's still talking." She was slightly muted, clearly talking into her phone and not to him for a half dozen muffled sentences. "Are you still with me, Nick? Tell me you’re doing okay.”

The scratching was letting more and more cold water through his fur. Each pull splashed sweet relief across him. With his eyes closed he writhed and twisted in the tub to set his claws to every inch of himself. The fox didn't notice how much of his fur he was tugging out because that didn't matter as the cold water soothed his fever and slowly brought clarity to his head. A surprising amount of clarity. "Yeah... I'm... actually feeling better."

"He's rational. Yeah... No, send one. We can't take chances."

Nick was actually starting to feel cold. Not that sickly cold from earlier; now he was cold like he'd been showering in frigid water for several minutes, which made sense because he had. He turned off the water with a shiver and reached for one of Judy's guest towels. Just a quick scrub across his torso to warm his fur before wrapping the towel around his waist. Despite that, he felt alright. Better than alright. Better than he had since before the raid. He felt positively light on his feet, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"Hey, Carrots? I feel okay now. I guess it was a false alarm. Would you let me out?"

More muffled conversation. "Alright... Don't hate me if I've got my... you know... at the ready..."

Why was it that he practically felt like bouncing? _I guess I am pretty relieved that I'm not going savage,_ he thought. "No worries. Better safe than sorry, sweetheart."

She muttered something that almost sounded like "sweet cheese and crackers this fox, so help me gods," but Nick knew he must have misheard her. He was a godsdamned delight. Heavy furniture dragged across the floor before the door swung open. Judy had a mix of annoyance and relief on her face until she saw him. Then her eyes went wider than he'd ever seen, and her tranquilizer and phone tumbled to the floor with dual clatters.

"...hello? Officer Hopps?" He could barely hear the doctor's voice coming through her dropped phone as Judy's mouth just opened and closed silently in shock.

"Okay, Carrots. I know I'm a handsome mammal, but you don't need to stare." This wasn't the first time she'd seen him in just a towel.

Judy's wide eyes traced up from his eyes then ran down his body. Was she actually checking him out? Right in front of him? Rolling his eyes a little but flushing and feeling flattered, Nick posed slightly with a flex. He did feel really good right now, and Judy looking at him like that... It made him think she might have feelings for him as well. And even if she didn't, he would never pass up a chance like this to tease her when she was apparently awestruck by his body. "Hey now, my eyes are up here. I will not be objectified by your female gaze," Nick teased.

Judy squeaked, her eyes shooting to his face while her own was flushed bright red. She still silently flapped her jaw, and the muted voice of the doctor through the phone was growing more panicked. Now that he thought about it, she wasn't staring up at him. Not how she normally did.

"Did... Did you get taller, Fluff?" She was at most a head shorter than him right now rather than only coming up to his chest. And was the doorknob higher? _No,_ he thought. _That would be crazy._

His words finally seemed to jolt her out of her silent routine. "Y-you... you…" The bunny raised a trembling paw to point at his chest.

"Me. I agree. It is me. Isn't using our words great?"

Judy shook her head. "Nick, you... you... How? What?"

He snorted. What did she mean what? Did he scratch out all his fur and give himself a mangy appearance? Nick looked down and, oh wow, he really did tug out a lot of fur. It actually looked like his coat was much shorter, but there were no obvious bare patches... Just that, wait, were his legs longer? Was his torso shorter? Something was... His proportions looked wrong. His tail flicked in confusion...

Nick's eyes went wide. There wasn't the usual shifting sensation of his tail sliding inside the towel. Instead it really was just a flicker, a buzz of feeling just above his rear. He looked down and around and even spun, chasing the familiar sight of his tail but not finding it. His paws went back and... His own jaw dropped in disbelief. The fox's long, proudly groomed tail was gone, and in its place was a stubby little cottonball of a thing. His ears twitched… **His ears!**

His face surely mirrored the shock on Judy's as his paws traced up, and up, and up ears far longer than they'd ever been. He ran to the mirror and an orange and brown furred rabbit buck met his gaze. The fur pattern was the same; an orange face, dark brows, dark tipped ears, a dark greyish-purple colored nose, and even the same green eyes stared back at him, but he was... he was...

"I-I'm a b-bunny?" Nick choked out. He even had buck teeth now! He turned back to Judy. She still had complete disbelief written all over her face.

"You're... Yup, you're a bunny," she breathed. 

Nick's new scut flicked again hysterically, and the towel slipped from his waist to puddle around his ankles. It was as if Judy's eyes were yanked down by a magnet to lock directly onto his sheath. Nick stared at Judy while the doe stared at his package, both of them blushing harder with each and every passing second.

" _ **SWEET CHEESE AND CRACKERS**_!" The two mammals roared in unison, Nick scrambling for the lost towel while Judy covered her face in her paws and sputtered out constant apologies. It took a moment before they were even remotely calm, much less able to speak, the fo... the _buck_ sitting on the floor with the towel wrapped around him while the doe stepped behind the doorframe. A shaky grey paw snagged her phone off the floor.

"...Hello? Calm down doctor. No, I'm okay. He didn't go savage. He just, uh... S-send the ambulance please. He's... He's... I don't know how to say it. I honestly think you won't believe me if I tell you."

Loud, continual beeps started to ring in the kitchen.

"Oh shit, the pizza!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone saw that coming then congratulations. You deserve a cookie. Go on, go get one. We'll wait.  
> ...  
> ...  
> You got one yet? Enjoy it; you've earned it. It's a cheat day. Get them chocolate chips.
> 
> And now everyone can see what's happening in this story. Without question, Dolittle's Shop of Horrors is the greatest pun I've ever written and I will never top it. That said, I will obnoxiously continue to try. I do not apologize for that; I'm not a quitter. If you don't love great, amazing, and truly inspired puns, then you're reading the wrong story. 
> 
> This chapter was basically already written. It just needed a few tweaks and I had the time. The next ones likely won't be so frequent as 1 to 2 were. I had PTO and decided to use it to polish this up. I cannot promise a regular release schedule, so just check back when you want. I hope people are enjoying this story and would like to thank everyone for the kind comments on the first chapter.


	3. The New Normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judy and Nick get some explanations for their current circumstances, and then they walk home for a normal movie night. Right? A completely normal movie night. Nothing is different.

Nick doubted that many mammals thought a hospital gown and bed were the height of comfort and being back twice in the same week made it all the worse. But somehow even worse than that was the reason for the follow up visit. Now, he was an anomaly. An oddity. A marvel, but not in a good way. The first and only mammal to transform into a completely different species.

Now he was poked and prodded and questioned by a seemingly endless number of doctors ranging from the baffled to the disbelieving to the obsessively fascinated. He had blood drawn and a patch shaven off his arm for fur samples and his temperature taken a dozen times and even a cute rabbit doctor who suggested testing if he had all the physical capabilities of a buck with a lascivious grin. He was flattered but pretended not to hear the question, and he never saw Judy behind him glaring daggers at her back. But there were only so many questions he could answer or pretend to not hear and he was getting sick of it.

"That's enough! No more tests! Get your paws off me!" Nick bellowed in a fury, swatting the crowd of doctors and nurses away from him. That finally seemed to drive home that he wasn't some sideshow attraction to be ogled at, and the mammals cleared out of the room with the exception of his original doctor from a few days before and Judy. Still shaking angrily, Nick just curled up in the bed and drew the thin hospital sheet around himself. A gentle, comforting paw stroked his back. 

"Hey, Slick... Um... How're you feeling?" Judy's tone was warm and familiar, if somewhat uncertain. It was a connection to his life that shown brightly. A thread leading back to where he wasn't being treated like he had suddenly grown two heads. Which would have only been slightly more ridiculous than his current situation. He only hesitated a second before yanking her into a hug and burying his nose in her neck.

"Could you give us a minute?" Judy gently asked the doctor before returning the hug. She was so soft and warm, and the doe soothingly stroked the back of his neck. 

"What the hell happened to me?" Nick whispered hoarsely. He still had trouble believing it.

"... You got a little bit worse at grabbing things off the top shelf and you probably won’t be able to ride as many roller coasters." He chuckled wetly at her joke despite himself. It did make him feel better. A bit.

"Hey," she murmured. "It's okay." Judy pushed him over so they were laying together in the bed and she pulled his head into her shoulder more firmly. "It's me. It's me. I'm here for you." She was. She always was. Nick felt his tension ease with her stroking paws and pulled her a little tighter. The stress drained out of him slowly, leaving him feeling slightly exhausted but warmly comfortable in her arms. He shifted slightly, uncurling as he relaxed. The new position had them pressed belly to belly as he just enjoyed the intimacy of her hug.

"Thanks, Carrots," he said after a few long minutes of hugging.

"I should start calling you that. You're the orange one." His laugh came more easily this time and he nuzzled their fluffy cheeks together. Judy returned the motion and hugged him tighter. It just felt natural, and she was so warm.

Idle thoughts and daydreams of the doe tickled the edges of his mind. She really was soft, and warm, and pressing up against him. The thought of her wrapped around him, legs hooked over his hips... That wasn’t fair. Judy was his best friend. She should be free of his perverted musings even though she felt so good against him. His dull claws carded through the fur on the back of her neck and Judy hitched a happy little sigh against his ear. With this position, his romantic feelings for the rabbit beside him were starting to make themselves known, his sheath swelling. Nick pulled back and saw Judy was staring at him with half-lidded eyes. Her lips were slightly parted in a cute little pout just begging to be kissed away. It felt so right to have her in his arms.

His nose twitched. He could smell her. It wasn't just her normal scent; this was tinged with floral notes he'd occasionally noticed during their movie nights when she was snuggled up against him or in the cruiser when he got her to laugh particularly hard at a joke. He'd smelled it plenty of times, but now his rabbit brain was telling him exactly what it was. Arousal. It was the smell of a fertile, turned on doe in the arms of her mate. Nick's sheath swelled in realization. His eyes darted down to her mouth again, just catching her tongue licking her lips. He felt like he was about to drown in her purple eyes and the look she was giving him only made him want to jump in headfirst. Nick slowly leaned forward–

And a pounding at the door had the bunnies jumping apart. The door opened to the looming figure of the chief of police once again with the doctor behind him. The buffalo stomped in and just stared at the orange rabbit in the bed wearing a hospital gown and with the sheet over his lower half. It seems that whatever the deer had told him, this was still too much for him to believe.

"Okay. Funny. Very funny, Hopps. Hilarious. Now where is Wilde? I'm sure this was his idea even if I have no clue how he got the doctor to play along." Bogo very obviously did not look amused. 

Judy was adjusting her shirt discretely, blush still heating her face. "He's, uh... This is him now, I guess." She waved a paw at Nick weakly, clearly thinking that her answer was not especially convincing.

The buffalo just snorted. "I don't have time for this, Hopps."

The doe just blinked and waved her paw again. It was obvious that she wasn’t any more prepared to explain what happened than the buffalo was to believe it.

"Uh, chief? It's me." Bogo's eyes twitched at the fox's voice coming from the buck in the bed.

"I'll admit, the fur coloring is a nice touch and you're a decent mimic, but as I said. I do **not** have time for this." The buffalo was giving him a full-on glare and grated his words out through clenched teeth with the weight of a building coming down. " **Where is Wilde?** "

Nick let out a breathy chuckle that had just the slightest tinge of hysteria. After so many of the medical professionals basically jumped him to find out why he had been transformed into a rabbit, he found it a little hilarious that the buffalo was immediately discounting the possibility. An idea struck him, and he waved the bull forward. Bogo stepped up with a snort and glared down in a way that let him know in no uncertain terms that when the buffalo's patience ran out it would be at the expense of the buck's soon to be broken bones. He waved again, beckoning the chief to bend over. Bogo rolled his eyes but leaned down enough to put his ear at the rabbit's muzzle.

"You keep a photo of Gazelle in your locker jammed in behind the door," he whispered. Bogo jumped slightly, but Nick wasn't done. "You're a forum moderator on both her official fan club blog and on r/Gazelle under the username ultimatefan76."

The buffalo reared up to stare down at him in shock. "H-how did you...? Nope. No. Don't care. I don't know what Wilde told you, but you better forget whatever it is you **think** he said." Meaty fists thudded onto the bed on either side as the bull kept staring at him threateningly. 

Nick smirked. "He didn't tell me anything because I'm him." His smile turned into an absolutely shit-eating grin. "Really, I was saving those juicy pieces of gossip for if I ever really wanted something from you, but this’ll do. Shame, though. I’ve always thought the breakroom could use an espresso machine."

The anger and shock on Bogo's face shifted to a paradoxical look of disbelieving acceptance. "Oh my gods, it is you." He pinched the bridge of his nose with two thick fingers. "Shit. Shit! How?"

The deer stepped forward, ears flicking against his antlers. "I may be able to help with that. While looking up the disfigurements from other mammals' exposure to the drugs, we've determined that they were less a crippling of the original animal and more a shift toward something else. A bear with an elephant tail, an otter with the ears of a deer, so on and so forth. It seems that one effect of the narcotic was changing a body part into that of a different species entirely. At least in some cases. Now, as Officer Wilde experienced a full body exposure, he has instead experienced a full body change."

"What? Why though?" Bogo whipped his head between doctor and patient. "He didn't have any other symptoms of fang exposure."

"Yes, but he also didn't inject or smoke the narcotic, he was immersed in it and consumed it. It could be that the delivery mechanism was different, but it could also be that he was exposed to a compound used in the synthesis of fang but not the actual drug itself.” He tapped a pen against his clipboard thoughtfully. “No high or buzz, no hallucinations. Just... well... bunny." He finished by waving a hoof at Nick. “Frankly we don’t know enough at this point to determine much.”

"But why a rabbit? The other transformations seemed to be random, yet the only fox officer working with the only rabbit officer becomes one?" Nick blinked. He’d been wondering that himself.

The doctor coughed. His eyes darted towards the two officers in question before inspecting the forms in front of him thoroughly. "Well... Given the... closeness... between Officers Hopps and Wilde, it isn't unreasonable to believe that there may have been some rabbit DNA on or in him at the time of the–"

"Woah!" Nick and Judy were both flushing furiously. "We're not-it's not like that," they stammered simultaneously.

The doctor seemed enamored with scrubbing a non-existent stain from his lab coat. "I'm not judging how two young mammals spend their time or whom they spend it with, but DNA exposure seems the most likely explanation."

Bogo was switching his gaze between them, new, certainly uncomfortable questions on his lips when Judy gasped.

"Blood." Everyone stared at her. She put a paw to her ear where the bandage was gone but two stitches still remained. "Blood. I was cut during the raid and when I tried to hold Nick up I kind of... bled all over him."

Bogo just blinked while the doctor started furiously scribbling notes. "How much? Where?" He questioned.

"A fair bit," Nick said as he recalled the details that he had deliberately pushed to the back of his mind. "And some of it went... it went in my mouth..."

"Did you consume the blood?" The doctor was drawn up in recording the new information in the most fascinating medical case he'd ever heard of while the poor chief just pinched his temples like he was trying to fight off a migraine.

Nick purposefully avoided Judy's eyes. "N-not on purpose. It was in my mouth and I probably swallowed some when I fell into the tank and swallowed the drug as well."

"Excellent.” _Does he know what that word means?_ Nick thought. “This is quite exciting. Once we figure out the drug's other properties, and you did seize quite a bit of it, correct?" Bogo nodded. "If it works through a simultaneous exposure to the DNA of a different species then it may be relatively easy to reverse the effects. If it does work that way, then it would be a relatively simple matter to run a few tests for safety, acquire some fox blood, and we'll be able to turn you back. We would be able to skip the usual ZFDA process for drug certification in this case, as it would count as emergency treatment. Probably. It’s not like this has exactly happened before.”

"Oh." Nick perked up immediately, missing the sad look that flitted across Judy's face before it was replaced by guilt. "Well, not that sitting through all these tests hasn't been delightful, and it's been interesting to be a bunny even if it just was for an ambulance ride, but I won't say no to being myself again."

"Wait, wait, wait," Bogo muttered. "So, the drug combined with rabbit DNA to turn him into a rabbit himself? That makes no sense. Is that even possible?"

The deer just shrugged and pointed at Nick. "I don't know what to tell you. It happened, so deal with it. It'll make this go quicker if you all just accept it and don't question if it's possible too much. It’s what we’re working with now.”

"I need a drink," Bogo growled.

"Well," the doctor clarified, "it isn't as if he's entirely a rabbit. The coloring is nothing natural for rabbits and he still does have carnassial teeth." At the deer's gesture Nick smiled, revealing a muzzleful of teeth far too sharp for any rabbit. Even if he did also have a new pair of buck teeth in front of the meat-slicing fox ones. "There's also the question of how much his senses have changed." The doctor flicked off the light, causing the other three mammals to protest.

"Just humor me. Officer Hopps? How many fingers am I holding up?"

The doe squinted, but she couldn't make out much of anything in the darkened room. "Uhm... Three?" Judy guessed.

"Wrong. Officer Wilde? Same question."

"Two," Nick answered immediately. "Now four. Now just your thumb. Now, trick question, you're holding three fingers down."

The lights flicked back on to show the doctor indeed holding three fingers toward the floor.

"See? He still has some amount of night vision, so in addition to his carnassials it appears he retained his tapetum lucidum. I'm sure with time we could think of an appropriate test for smell and hearing as well, although the larger ears and shorter muzzle imply that they would have changed at least partly."

"Oh!" Judy said excitedly. "I've got an idea!" The rabbit darted out of the door before they could stop her. She was gone for at least ten minutes, during which time the doctor (Dr. Racklin the buck memorized, as it seemed he'd be spending a lot more time in his care) asked Nick more questions while Bogo just tried to keep a hold of his sanity. Judy eventually ran back in with a styrofoam cup of coffee. 

"Here, Nick." She passed him the cup, which he gratefully accepted.

"An awful long trip for coffee, Officer," the deer drawled. "The pot’s just down the hall."

Nick took a deep sniff of the coffee, groaning happily. "That's because she didn't get it from down the hall. This is the specialty medium roast from Growley's down the street." The fox slurped a big mouthful, rolling his eyes in pleasure. Gods above, how he loved good coffee.

Judy grinned. "He always did swear he knew what coffee shop a cup was from based on the smell alone."

"Fascinating. So, he's retained at least some of his sense of smell, though it's unlikely it's at the same level due to the size difference of the muzzles. Not really a rabbit but certainly not a fox anymore," Racklin mumbled while scribbling more notes. "This is going to make one hell of a journal article. Although, I don't want to take up too much of your time today. I request you come in for a daily checkup while we work on straightening out a cure. Just to ensure you remain physically stable and healthy."

"I can do that," Nick confirmed.

"And I still want you watched, just in case you turn into a stoat or a hedgehog or whatever next," Bogo growled. The bull had apparently found his normal commanding attitude, taking comfort in having at least a little bit of control over the situation.

"I can keep watching him," Judy added. 

"Good. Stay out of trouble and call if anything goes wrong. I'm going to go interrogate Ramses and find out why the hell he made a drug that swapped species."

"You think this is another predator against prey plot?" Nick asked. As the only... err, as the only **former** predator in the room, the thought of returning to the fear driven specism of the Nighthowler Crisis hit home hard.

"Probably, but I'll have him detailing the whole thing by the time I'm done with him." The bull gave a grim smile. "I'm going to throw the book at him. Then another book at him. Then another. Then maybe the whole bookshelf, but he will talk." With that, the chief stomped out the door.

"Well alright then," Nick mumbled. "Uhhmmm..."

"You're cleared to go home for the day," the doctor said to the unspoken question. "But I would advise you lay as low as possible at the moment. I wouldn't be surprised if this leaks to the media and imagine the last thing you want is a bunch of reporters following you around."

"Cool. Cool cool cool. Good advice. Completely normal to hear. Not at all upsetting."

The deer crossed his arms. "Listen, I know you're unhappy about it, but this is the most incredible medical discovery since vaccines. I'll do what I can to get my team to respect your privacy, but it's all too likely that in a day or two someone will something slip either accidentally or intentionally." He grimaced apologetically. “Nothing I can do about that.”

"Right. Just don't loudly announce to strangers I'm the rabbit that used to be a fox and I might get a day or two to myself before I’m swamped by reporters." He turned to Judy. "So... I guess we can keep working through Nutflix?"

She smiled. "I'd like that."

\-------------

The rest of the day passed in a shockingly normal way. They had to make a quick stop to buy him a few changes of clothes, the buck no longer fitting his old outfits, but Nick somehow managed to find the same garish patterns he favored in rabbit sizes. Although, it had been amusing to watch him walk around in clothes three sizes too big. It almost made returning to her apartment feel normal with his familiar attire. That is, if she could ignore the thought that two bunnies walking down the street together looked to outside mammals like they were on a date. It was a heady thought, the desire to take his paw in hers strong. 

Nick was a bunny! She could almost sing! She found herself giggling harder at his little jokes, pushing his chest or shoulder in good-natured protest, letting herself veer into his side when a larger mammal lumbered by a little too close. She wanted to touch him. He just... All her fears, every mental whisper that her desires for the fox were wrong... Right now, none of those existed. He was a rabbit now. He was everything she wanted, and now he was something she could have.

A car swerved and rubber scraped across the curb. Judy jumped in actual shock, bounding sideways into Nick. The buck wrapped his arms around her, and they fell together against a storefront. When the danger passed, she realized her paws were clutching at his strong chest. She looked up. He was every bit as handsome as a buck as he was as a tod. Her heart started pounding.

"You okay?" Nick asked softly, so much caring in his eyes. When she mumbled an affirmative, he leaned her back onto her footpaws and this time threaded his arm through hers to lead her down the sidewalk. Judy was going to melt. It was all too much! He was a rabbit now and acting like a character straight out of a romance novel. They passed another doe who did a double take at the tall, exotically colored buck before shooting Judy an envious look that she could only reply to with a smug grin. 

They continued along arm in arm, Judy evenly split between feeling like she was in heaven and planning exactly how she would seduce him tonight. For the first time, it felt like she was allowed to be with him. It was a great dream, but all dreams come to an end, and hers came crashing down when they passed a fox family.

A tod and vixen sitting close together on a bench, a happily gurgling kit bouncing on the tod's knee while the vixen softly rubbed a paw across her swollen stomach. They looked so happy. And Nick... Nick was a fox, or at least he would be one again soon. How could she bear to let her own selfish, perverse desires take away a future family from the fox, a normal family? She straightened slightly, even if she couldn't make herself let go of his arm. She had to keep a tight hold of herself and last until he was a fox and they were just best friends again. No matter how much it hurt. There was no way he would be interested in such a deviant relationship once he was a fox again, and she couldn't tease the buck with what couldn't be. Even though she wanted nothing more than to rip his clothes off and rut him silly, flushing at the thought that he'd happily return her lust while they were both rabbits.

She focused all her willpower on chastely walking without enjoying the feel of him against her, and all too soon they were through her door and settled back on the couch. Judy could relax somewhat. _Just friends just friends just friends..._

They finished the action movie and watched a second before ordering food and eating and chatting away. Nick had quickly gotten used to some aspects of his new body, with only a few stumbles from misjudging distances with his newly shrunken stature. They had a few nice laughs at his expense, even if the buck didn't think it was nearly as funny as she did when he accidentally closed a cupboard on his ears. _Bunny problems,_ he thought sourly.

With the sun set, they agreed on another movie before bed. Nick took his usual position on the couch while Judy scrolled through his suggested picks for something that looked entertaining. She settled on the buddy cop movie of all things and sat down next to him.

 _Furner and Hooch_ was funny enough, the two mammals laughing at the friction caused between a strait-laced officer paired with a wild card. There were even a few nudging comparisons made to their own partnership, to differing levels of denial. Judy could do little more than grumble half-hearted excuses at the buck laughing and pointing out her own version of Turner's by the book nature and observance to a routine. However, Nick loudly protested being compared to the messier Hooch until they watched a scene where the big canine couldn't help himself and demolished a box of a dozen blueberry muffins all by himself. Nick's lips drew into a tight line when she looked at him, her own lips twisting into a teasing smile.

"Uh-huh. You say you're nothing alike?" Judy asked mockingly.

"Of course we aren't. Pure coincidence," Nick responded. "All mammals love blueberries. It's a proven, objective fact that they are the best fruit, and it's a completely reasonable thing for any mammal to go crazy for them."

"Uh-huh," she drawled again. "And you aren't just saying that because you ordered thirds of the blueberry pie at Servalan Street Bakery last week?"

"That was an unrelated series of events."

"Uh-huh," she said a third time. The doe was really getting a kick out of this. "And the fact that Clawhauser ordered an entire box of blueberry cake donuts that somehow disappeared off his desk within an hour? He seemed pretty upset."

Nick was looking slightly tense. "That... That could have been anyone. Besides, there was an anonymous delivery of replacement cake donuts later that day. I'm sure whomever the mammal that borrowed the sweets was, they regretted the momentary weakness and bought the replacements as an apology. No harm, no foul."

"Uh-huh." Judy leaned back into the cushions and turned her head back to the screen. "It's a shame no one ever found the thief. I'm sure they looked ridiculous sneaking into the broom closet in the back hallways halfway to the holding cells to scarf down an entire box of donuts." This time Nick visibly jerked, whipping his head around to stare at the bunny who was pointedly watching the movie with a smirk crooking her lips.

After a moment he relaxed. "Sly bunny," he chuckled.

"Dumb..." Judy paused and looked at him, canting her head to the side. "Dumb bunny, I guess." She sounded unhappy at her own words.

Nick ruffled her ears playfully; he knew how much that bothered her. "Don't worry, Fluff. You're clever enough to make rabbits some of the smartest critters around, even if I am bringing down the average right now." His words brought a soft chuckle and a small smile to her face, and she sat back to watch the movie.

As the film played though, both mammals started to yawn. It had been an exhausting day filled with no small amount of emotional whiplash, and the doe was the first to succumb to her exhaustion. Judy yawned again, her body tilting sideways until she was leaning against his shoulder and breathing deeply. It took him maybe twenty minutes to realize she had fallen asleep against him. _That was probably it for the night then_ , the buck thought. 

Nick paused the movie and turned off the television before sliding his arms around the doe and lifting her. Judy stirred sleepily, her own arms tightening around him and her nose burying into the fur of his neck. The buck shivered at an unexpected bolt of pleasure from the contact. His sheath was stirring despite his mental orders for its contents to remain dormant. _Bunny problems,_ he thought in frustration.

He carried her into her bedroom, fur tingling at how right it felt. Their relationship had always had some element of flirting to it, but there were several times today when it seemed as if she was open to and interested in taking it further. He was helpless to not respond with equal desire, his willpower crumbling under how absolutely head over heels he was for the bunny. The way she looked at him with apparent desire, her smell... It took all he had to not kiss her earlier. His thoughts were loudly bouncing around his skull and it didn't help that she was so damned soft and perfect feeling in his arms. Even with her muscles and fit body she was soft. Like steel wrapped in velvet. Then Judy made a noise, the barest hint of a hot little moan right as she tightened her arms around her. He felt her lips against his neck as she sighed. His sleepiness was blown away by the sudden rush of arousal. He had to get her to her bed before he did something they'd both regret.

Nick set her on the bed, careful to keep his hips back so his now throbbing erection didn't disturb her, but the doe didn't let go.

"Judy?" Nick whispered. "It's bedtime. Let me go, sweetheart."

Judy murred, one paw caressing his back. He was starting to tremble from holding back, from stopping himself from climbing into the bed with her and seeing how far she'd be willing to go. He knew exactly how far he'd be willing to take it if he didn't get the hell out of there.

"Mmm, Nick," she moaned. The buck pushed back and saw half-open, sleep-clouded eyes looking back at him, face flush with desire. That look, the whiff of aroused doe... He couldn't help it.

Nick leaned in the slightest bit to give her a tiny peck on the lips. Her eyes shot wide and her ears jerked up, but he was already standing ramrod straight. 

"Uh, it's, uh, bedtime," he stammered cheerily. "Time for sleep. Sleep is what we do now at times like this. Late times. In bed. Sleep. Nights. That's what they're made for. Nothing else to do in beds but sleep. Couches too. Speaking of, I'll be on the couch." The buck spun on his heel and marched back into the living room, closing her door behind him. His cheeks were on fire. _Stupid! Stupid stupid stupid! Oh gods, did I really just kiss her? M-maybe she's so sleepy that she won't remember it in the morning. Argh, and the way she smells!_

He partially stripped and clambered onto the couch, laying in the dark for a few minutes before staring down at what was keeping him awake. His tented boxers revealed his arousal, which didn't seem like it was going anywhere. He put a paw over his face in shame but then paused with widening eyes. Nick's nose twitched. He... he could smell her on his palm. That slightly herbal, lightly musky scent of horny doe. The buck knew he was sleeping on her couch and there was just a single door between them, but he couldn't help it. He took deep whiffs of her lingering smell and his free paw slid to his boxers.

There was a similar scene playing on the other side of the door. Judy had been having the most wonderful dream, Nick's strong arms and musky scent around her, and then all of a sudden she was awake in her bed right as the door closed. There was a slight dampness on her muzzle and Nick's scent still hung heavily over her. It was like a thick blanket that she could just wrap herself in forever, musky fox swirled with familiar buck. She licked her lips, finding a deliciously tempting flavor there. Trying to stay as silent as possible, she rolled onto her front and bit down on her pillow firmly. One paw slipped down her belly and under the waistband of her shorts.

Nick was panting as softly as he could. His paw pumped up and down his unfamiliar member. It was like he was thirteen all over again. Just doing what felt good as he figured out exactly how his body worked. His pants and gasps were partly muffled by the paw over his muzzle, both to mute his noises and to get every bit of that scent into his lungs as possible. A damp spot was growing on his boxers where his tip started leaking precum.

Judy bit down harder on her pillow to stifle an ecstatic groan. Her hips were twitching, humping against her paw. She had two fingers buried inside herself and her head was filled with images of the buck sleeping in the other room. Her other paw was also down at her crotch, rubbing tight circles on her clit. What if Nick heard her? She was tempted to be a little loud in the hope he'd come in to investigate. Find her all hot and bothered, fingering herself on the bed. Get behind her and take over for her paws. Pin her down and thrust inside of her. Give her everything she wanted. Judy quivered and tensed with a sudden orgasm, but she wasn't done yet. 

Nick's paw was moving faster. He could smell her excitement all around him. The buck smeared his paw around his muzzle so he could keep smelling that addicting aroma and move that paw down to fondle his sack. He was getting close.

Judy whimpered, imagining her big fox, her big buck, her... whatever, her Nick kneeling behind her. Paws on her hips. She liked to imagine that he'd be rough, that he knew she could take it and didn't hold back. She wasn't made of glass. In her fantasy, he would know that and pound into her without holding back. Judy smirked around a mouthful of pillow at the imagined look on his face if he ever found out her penchant for rough sex. He probably thought she was completely vanilla. The doe had driven herself to release three times already as she forced her last finger inside for that incredible stretch. She could feel one more climax building. It felt like a huge one, her tail twitching excitedly.

Nick's paw flew faster up and down his length. If he closed his eyes, he could practically hear her moaning under him. Needy little whimpers as she looked back at him and bit her lip. Gods, she had such a cute butt. Just a perfect little bubbly curved peach of an ass. Was it weird he wanted to bite it? He grit his teeth. The buck moved one paw over his tip right as he started to cum into his palm.

Judy bit down harder to stifle another delighted groan. He'd pull her back into him firmly, maybe with a sharp swat to her rump. She was rocking harder, faster, grinding her hips into her paws and then... Judy gasped, eyes crossing. Her movements stuttered as lightning shot up her spine. The doe had to fight to stay quiet. Twitching, moaning into the pillow as she squirted all over her paws and her sheets. She collapsed and rolled over, removing her paws from her sex, bringing glistening fingers to her face. Judy could picture the look on his face, split between shock and arousal as she licked her paw clean. Flush with her orgasm, the juices on her paw tasted like sweet victory on her tongue. Judy groaned slightly as the fantasy faded, shifting to the side to avoid the wet spot. She didn't know how she'd sneak sheets reeking of her climax past Nick to the wash. Her weariness rose in the hazy afterglow. Her eyelids fluttered.

Nick bit down on a groan as he made a ridiculous mess in his boxers. Funny how the feeling of pawing off was so different but so similar with his new body. The buck groaned. It wasn't quite as productive as a fox orgasm, but he still had quite a few splatters of cum drenching his front. He rose to his feet and walked to the bathroom, relieving and cleaning himself as best as he could. His boxers were still a bit of a mess, but hopefully the wet spot would dry by tomorrow. He slipped them off for a new pair, sticking the dirty pair into one of the plastic shopping bags. It would be a real trick to slip them into the wash without Judy getting suspicious. He regretted masturbating in his post-climax clarity, despite the strength of his orgasm. He'd felt this way about her for a long time; why was it just now that he couldn't control himself? He’d never jerked off during one of their sleepovers before. Yawning widely, the buck decided it was a problem for tomorrow. He crashed back onto the couch and let his eyes fall shut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there's the first smut chapter. For those who are unfamiliar with my usual stuff or weren't expecting it, I don't know what to tell you. I write smut, and this story will still be full of it. Consider this a warning, because things will only get more intense from here. Not every chapter will have sex but most of them will. 
> 
> I'm having fun writing Judy as someone who was sexually repressed from bad and frankly hateful sex education and information due to a conservative upbringing, but had a sexual awakening in college. I'm trying to adequately depict her as struggling with her desires against what she was told was 'right.' We'll see how good of a job I can do when I'm writing her heartfelt confession of her desires, fears, and doubts. Meanwhile, poor Nick is correctly assuming how she was raised without knowing how she grew outside of that. So the two of them are just so pent up that they couldn't stand it. As always, communication is key to relationships. Don't worry; they'll talk it out (and much more) soon enough. 
> 
> Also, I clearly will not stop with the puns, and I refuse to apologize for them.


	4. The Breaking Point

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another day, another doctor visit. Completely normal, as long as Judy and Nick can ignore the fact that they just masturbated at the thought of the mammal in the other room. The tension is back, and neither one thinks they can last.

Morning came groggily for both mammals. Judy stretched before recoiling at the slightly damp spot next to her in the bed. She groaned as she remembered her weakness from the night before. _Even if it was the best paw session I've had in a while,_ she thought with a lewd grin. Gods, the temptation to just sneak into the living room and start sucking Nick's cock. Tell him she was a bad bunny who couldn't help herself and needed to be fucked hard. _Ah, if only... Sweet cheese and crackers, I'm gonna jump him if I can't keep myself under control._ She bundled the kinky thoughts up into the back of her mind and bundled her sheets down onto the floor. The bunny was sure she could get them to the washer once Nick was distracted. 

On the other side of the door Nick woke with a pleased groan. The dry boxers were a lot more pleasant than sleeping in his own mess. He stretched happily. The thought of getting his cum soaked underwear into the washer was just a small issue. He'd tricked the rabbit before, and it wasn't like his transformation had changed who he was that much. Probably. The bedroom door opened for the owner of the apartment to walk out wearing athletic shorts and a tank top.

"Oh, good morning Judy..." Nick drifted off with his nose twitching. He sat up and saw her nose twitching as well. _Oh gods... Can she smell it? Oh wait, I can smell..._ His eyes widened. Judy grinned back nervously. He could smell a hint of his late-night activities, but there was just the slightest whiff of horny doe.

"Hey, Slick. Uhhhh... Breakfast?"

"Uhm, yeah. Yeah, that sounds good," he said with just as much trepidation. It seemed she was giving him an out that he was all too happy to take. He quickly slipped on the clothes he was wearing the day before. They were clean enough and he didn't really want to stand around her in nothing but his boxers.

The heating pan and melting butter covered the smells of their mutual masturbation, even though neither mammal knew for sure what the source was. Nick had smelled feminine arousal while Judy had picked up on heavy male musk, but they spent more time self-consciously fearing the other would smell them than they did focusing on what they could smell themselves. The doe shook her head to keep his scent from her mind and bent over to fish around in her fridge.

"So," she said, "are you feeling up for a bunny breakfast or do you still hunger like a fox?"

His eyes were locked on her ass. Her tail flicked, her shorts digging into her form just ever so slightly and pulling the fabric tight across her rear. "I want bunny," he answered honestly before his eyes widened at his own words.

Luckily, Judy just shot him a smile over her shoulder, seeming to not notice his wandering gaze. "Alright! Get ready for some lettuce! I promise you'll love it."

To his surprise, pan-crisped romaine with a light vinaigrette was actually kind of delicious in the morning. Nick cleaned his plate without realizing it and went back for seconds.

"Hooohh," he sighed. "I'll admit it. That was fantastic."

"I'm glad," she grinned. "I don't really mind eggs, but veggies are so much better."

"Hmm. I wonder if my dietary requirements have changed?"

"Would that matter?"

"Probably. I may as well keep eating eggs and chicken just in case. Maybe a little fish now and then.”

"I guess I never thought about that. Exactly how different you are."

"I don't think the doctors even know. I'm a genuine, one of a kind mammal. And then I turned into a bunny, too."

She giggled. "Okay. Well, what should we do for the rest of the day?"

"I guess we could keep working through the Nutflix catalog, but I'm feeling a little restless." He offered to take her plate and rinsed both dishes off in the sink while the doe thought.

“Hmm-kay. How about we take showers and then maybe go out somewhere? We can walk around a bit before heading to the hospital and maybe do a little window shopping on the way back.”

He nodded. “That could work, but do you think we’ll be harassed by reporters? The doc said my condition would be well known in a day or two.”

“I hope it hasn’t happened yet, but we could always just run away,” Judy shrugged. “Plus, there’s no way Bogo would release my address. He’ll likely have to do a press conference once word gets out, but I imagine he’ll keep the details light.”

“Right. So, we just need to sneak about close to here. I wouldn’t put it past some reporters to follow us home.”

“I mean, it is their job to investigate and report,” she countered. “That said, I really don’t want any mammals hanging at the door, so if we need to run, I expect you to keep up with me. You want the first shower?”

The buck agreed and grabbed a change of clothes before stepping into the restroom. He'd only just gotten into the shower when there was a knock at the door.

"Nick? I'm gonna do a load of laundry. I'll use cold water so the hot water won't run out, but the water pressure may dip."

"Alright," he called back, working shampoo into his fur. "Thanks for the heads up." True to her words, the water streaming out of the shower head slowed a few minutes later as the washer began to fill, but with her warning he had already mostly rinsed off. He washed the last of the suds off and stepped out, reaching for a towel. Nick mused that at the very least his new form allowed for quicker showers as he was able to scrub his newly shortened fur dry. A little blast from the fur dryer and he was only a little damp rather than still working to wring water from a formerly bushy tail. 

He dressed and left the bathroom, Judy taking his place with her own bundle of clothing. The washer was still running, and so he grabbed his soiled boxers from the night before and, after a moment's thought, the clothes he'd worn the previous day and this morning. They weren't that dirty, but he figured that he could claim he was just keeping his limited wardrobe at full capacity while removing any suspicion that a lone pair of underwear might bring.

"Hey, Carrots," he called through the door. "I'm gonna toss some clothes in with your laundry."

"Uhm, okay," she yelled back over the running water. The buck opened the closet door that held her tiny dryer stacked on top of the washer. His nose twitched when he opened the washing machine lid. It smelled like she'd used too much detergent, but Nick figured he wasn't going to be wearing these clothes for much longer than a week or two. It wasn't like he really needed to worry about the colors fading.

With that done, he put a pot of coffee on while waiting for Judy to finish her own shower. The doe came out dressed but with a towel still wrapped around her ears, happily accepting a filled cup from him. They chatted and waited until the machine buzzed, swapping the now cleaned fabric into the dryer before heading out.

\-------------

There were plenty of parts of the city that Judy wasn't familiar with and they were having a good time exploring them. Several wonderfully interesting knick-knack and antique stores weren't too far from the hospital, and the two mammals got into a fun competition of coming up for the best story regarding particularly old furniture. Nick was winning with a tale about a haunted dresser that killed a family of five through a series of wardrobe malfunctions. Judy laughed too hard to think up a counter story before their time was up and they had to book it to the hospital.

The check-up felt very standard, considering how not standard the overall situation was. Dr. Racklin took another blood sample, Nick's heart rate and blood pressure, and asked pretty normal feeling questions about any recent pain or soreness. With nothing new to report, it was a quick visit. The chief was there, but he just seemed happy Nick hadn't turned into a different mammal again and left quickly. They were also happy to find that considerably fewer mammals huddled around his door or tried to ask him their own questions, although the doe who had flirted with Nick the previous day came around right as they were leaving and made no attempt to cover up the fact that she was checking him out. 

A frown tugging at her brows, Judy wrapped her arm around Nick's and asked if he was ready to go. He agreed happily, and the buck had been facing away from the doctor the entire time anyway, so he never even saw her as they started walking. _If I can't have him while he's a bunny then no other doe's getting a chance,_ she thought heatedly. She shot back a triumphant smirk, Judy but was surprised to see the other doe just give her a thumbs up and a wink.

Judy turned back, feeling slightly embarrassed. It's not like they were together, so her possessiveness wasn't really fair, but it also felt like they weren't already a couple because of the issue of species. If Nick wanted to sleep with a rabbit, but he wasn't interested in her... The idea left a bitter taste in her mouth. She realized that he didn't try to unlink their arms. Maybe he liked the contact, or maybe the buck in him wanted to keep the pretty doe close. Judy almost let a groan slip out. Those thoughts weren't helping!

She was so caught up in her own thoughts that Judy didn't notice that he had steered her back to the antique stores. The doe blinked and looked around again.

"Well?" Nick prompted.

"Well what?"

"I didn't think you'd be so willing to let me win the haunted furniture contest. Thought you had a little more fight in you, but I guess my story was just too good." The buck sighed dramatically.

"Really now?" Judy asked, her competitive nature rising. She twisted her head to peer into the various shops surrounding them. The doe tugged him by the arm towards a window showing off a faded yet elegant looking tea set. "That's just because you haven't heard about the cursed teapot of East Northfarvingtonville! Legends say this very teapot used to be a loving mother of four..."

The afternoon quickly turned into swapping more ridiculous stories. They bounced from store to store until Judy finally conceded defeat following Nick's description of a pocket watch with the most inconvenient tendency to make its wearer commit arson. 

They'd wandered past the series of stores to one of the canals winding through the city. While the larger waterways were invaluable avenues for trade and transportation, this one was small enough to be reasonably peaceful. The two rabbits walked across arching Bridges and waterside trails, watching small boats move across the water. They eventually had a very early dinner from a food stall in a nearby park. The vendor gave Nick a very confused look when the buck ordered chicken kebabs. Judy had to hold back a giggle with a mouthful of veggies and pita. It was a filling meal, but the food was light enough that they decided to walk back rather than call a zuber. Judy's cheeks hurt from grinning, and she couldn't help but think that the afternoon and evening felt fairly date-like. It was wonderful, but there was still enough space between them to let her focus on their platonic relationship. At least, until a wandering elephant who wasn't paying attention nearly flattened them.

The two bunnies jumped back into an alcove when the inattentive bull blundered by, Nick moving slightly earlier than Judy. Perhaps it was his city-born reaction speed, or maybe he had caught a glimpse of the elephant in the reflection off a nearby window. Either way, when Judy jumped to safety there was a paw on her back pulling her just a little faster to avoid getting stomped. 

"Jerk," Nick muttered, following the bull with a twist of his head. "Hey buddy! Maybe pay attention next... Yeah, he has headphones on. Unbelievable. Can you believe the nerve of some mammals? Thick skulled moron..."

Judy couldn't respond. Really, she could barely hear his words. He'd yanked her a little further than she'd meant to jump, and now their fronts were firmly mashed together while he chastised the oblivious elephant moving down the street. She knew she should be mad at the bull, but there was a strong paw on her lower back keeping her tight against Nick's chest, nose pressed into the gap in his shirt where the top button hung open. Fresh heat bloomed in her lower stomach with each inhale of his scent. The doe couldn't help but wrap her arms around his back.

Nick paused his colorful description of the _Podcast for Morons: How to be Inconsiderate in your Day-to-Day Life and a Just an Absolute Jerk in General_ that he was sure was playing in the elephant's headphones when he felt trembling paws on his shoulder blades. 

He looked down to see Judy's face buried against his chest, ears glowing bright red. She turned up to him when his words trailed off. Her eyes were half-lidded and her lips just barely parted. The buck swallowed. The sexual tension was back, the unmistakable feeling that she wanted him, her blunt claws slightly digging into his back. He leaned down just a bit but suddenly she was an arm's length away.

"Y-you wanna head back and watch a movie?" Judy asked with a slight stammer, nose twitching. _Of course,_ he thought with disappointment. _I must still smell like a fox. It scares her._

"Yeah, Fluff," he said fondly but also sadly. He had been starting to think that being a bunny would let them get closer. That they'd explore how they felt about each other once species wasn't an issue. That he'd have an opportunity to convince her to give him a chance as a fox. He had to admit that his rabbit hormones weren't making it easy. Nick wanted to romance her, not just bend her over a table, but his body reacted to hers so readily now that he could smell her excitement. 

The buck shook his head irritably. Luckily, she was just ahead of him and didn't see. It wasn't fair to her. He guessed that bunnies really were just naturally hot to trot. She'd joked about it, but it was like she couldn't help but to react to him. He certainly knew he was having a hard time holding himself back when faced with signs of her desire. Nick would just have to spend a few days thinking about baseball or the weather or Bogo naked or just about anything other than the rounded butt shifting in front of him that was so perfectly shown off by her leggings.

Judy kept herself ahead of Nick just so she didn't have to look at him. The doe was worried that if he kept looking at her that way then she'd end up with her panties around her ankles before she knew it. It did feel like a date: a long walk and fun conversation, some tasty street food, and a male she was attracted to both physically and emotionally. At this rate she was going to need to get herself off again tonight, but the doe would have to try to avoid making another mess. He'd probably get suspicious if she had to wash sheets every day. Maybe a shower later, justified by their walk through the district.

Luckily, they were quickly approaching her apartment and at least there hadn't been any sign of mammals trying to pester Nick about his current condition. _It'll be easy enough,_ she told herself reassuringly. _Just watch another movie or two, say goodnight, leave the subject of every single wet dream from the last six months lying on my couch, furiously masturbate in the shower, and sleep. Then just repeat that cycle for another week. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy._ She unlocked the door.

Nick loaded up some fantasy rom-com movie from the 80s ( _Of course it was from the 80s,_ she thought with a roll of her eyes. _I swear that decade has to run out of movies sooner or later._ ) that he swore by while she poured them both a drink. She set the cups on the coffee table and sat down, hesitating before scooting closer to him as she always had when they watched late night movies.

She leaned in against him. He wasn't as big as he used to be, but he still made a comfy pillow. Nick tossed an arm around her as the movie continued to play. They'd snuggled up a hundred times to watch a movie; this shouldn't really be any different, should it? They'd even done it last night! She could keep herself in check. This was just how they'd always been. It was his first smarmy comment maybe halfway through the film that had her thinking that their situation might possibly be a teensy bit completely, utterly, and absolutely different.

"Talk about falling for a girl," he whispered right as the hero dramatically threw himself down a grassy hillside to profess his love for the heroine. Judy snorted in amusement and swatted at his chest, but then her nose twitched. Her eyes widened. She could smell him again. So much stronger than before.

It wasn't that he didn't smell like he used to. He still had a fair bit of foxy musk, another example that the drug-induced change wasn't a complete transformation, but there was also an herbal whiff of hot buck that went straight to her head. There could be no doubt that he was attracted to her. Things had gotten a little heated back at the hospital when she thought he was going to kiss her, and then twice in the street when they were so close together, and that dream last night, but now... Now, he smelled like a rabbit that was ready to take her for a roll in the clover. Or five. That scent rolling off the mammal she trusted most in the world did something primal. It lit a spark in her mind that shot down her spine, heat blooming in her core. The mixture of his original musk just made it spicily exotic. The fox she'd been pining after was now a bunny that smelled like he wanted to get his paws, and other things, all over her. Judy couldn't help it. Heat bloomed in her core. She could feel her ears flush and clenched her thighs together a little tighter, hoping that his nose wouldn't pick up on her arousal or his new bunny brain wouldn't recognize it. No such luck.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw his ears fly up dramatically. It would probably be a lot easier to read him while he wasn't used to those revealing appendages, but that was little comfort as she stared at the television wide-eyed, not registering the movie at all. His shoulder tensed against her cheek, his arm flexing in place against her. It didn't help. Not at all. The feel of his strong muscles had her core pulsing hotly. She barely caught his nose twitching out of her peripheral vision and then saw a brief pulse of fabric as something throbbed against the front of his slacks. 

Judy tried to calm down and just focus on the movie, taking a nervous sip of her drink. She managed to make it to through the second act, but her mind couldn't escape the male beside her. Nick hadn't moved the arm around her shoulders just as she hadn't moved from how she was cuddled into his side. Neither knew how much the other wanted them, so they were locked in a stalemate of mutually pretending that nothing was happening.

He was a very large buck, at least the size of a hare. His strong paw was idly resting on her upper arm and his broad chest rose and fell a little faster as he breathed in her excitement. Maybe he was just trying to reset the mood to friends watching a movie, but his next few snarky comments only had the result of giving her a new burst of his scent. Each time it caused her arousal to drive higher and flood the room in turn with the smell of horny doe in a feedback loop that showed no signs of stopping.

Her ears felt like they may boil off her head. She was sure that if he turned his head at all that he'd see her embarrassed flush, her parted lips and lust blown eyes, her panting chest... Should... should she let go and push them apart, put some space between them in an attempt to break the sexual tension? Could she? 

Nick was still her best friend. He was still the mammal she spent her nights perversely fantasizing about. But now he was basically a bunny, too! Now there would be no condemning glares or judging eyes. They could be together... Hell, if she brought such a fine buck back home the only thing she'd have to worry about was beating the other does off him with a stick! And he **wanted** her! Her mind started spinning, eyes locked on the swell of his erection beneath the fabric of his pants. She'd already seen him naked, and now she could let that sight of his thick sheath define her imagination of exactly how large his excitement was. It just added to her arousal, her mind careening down that slippery slope. The doe gnawed on her lip as her damp panties started to cling to her. Judy was about to pull him on top of her, consequences be damned!

It... It wasn't like she would be taking advantage of him... He was a grown mammal who could make up his own mind. If he wanted to have sex with her then that was his choice. She certainly wanted it... _But what happens when he's cured? He won't be a rabbit forever,_ a traitorous voice whispered viciously in her mind. _Then what? Then you'll just be a sick, twisted little predo who gets herself off on dreams of fox fangs, fantasies of sharp claws digging into your hips._ The rabbit had to bite her tongue to keep a soft whimper from escaping her throat. Moisture gathered at the corner of her eyes. _But he won't want you anymore. Not once he knows all your unnatural desires. This is just a typical buck reacting to a turned-on doe. Sure, the **buck** wants you. You're a good looking doe and he's smelled you creaming your panties for two days now whenever he so much as touches your paw, but once he's gotten off, once he's turned back into a fox thinking with a clear head?_ A tear finally rolled down her cheek. 

"Judy..." A worried voice murred into her ear. Nick's paw squeezed her shoulder and his free one came up to cup her cheek, thumb softly swiping away the tear. "Hey, what's wrong?"

He leaned in and her breath caught in her throat. "Judy, I'm here for you. It's still me," he whispered. "I care about you... So tell me what's wrong." His lips brushed against her cheek in a soft kiss. 

_Told you,_ that voice chimed in. _Just another horny buck trying to get in your pants. I'm sure letting him fuck you now is going to make up for him leaving the second he's a fox again. I bet he won't even wait that long. Pound you a few times, probably ask if you'll suck him off, and he'll be gone by morning. Will you still feel good in the morning, all alone with jizz crusting up your fur?_

He was half lit by the screen as he looked down at her gently. His thumbs brushed her cheeks soothingly as he caught her leaking tears. That face was so different, yet so familiar to the fox she loved. Because it was still him. It was still the same mammal who'd helped her arrest Bellwether, the same mammal who always had her back, and the same mammal who was looking at her like his heart might break at the sadness on her face.

 _Screw you,_ she thought back angrily at the voice, squeezing that toxic presence until it died with a warble. _This is Nick! He would never hurt me. I don't care if he's a fox or a bunny or a wrinkled little gerbil! It's still him! And I have to let him know how I feel..._ As she had almost her entire life, Judy swallowed down her doubts and her fears and leaped in headfirst.

"Nick. I love you." She pulled him forward with paws tightly fisting his collar, smashing their lips together, and the dam was broken. The buck's eyes opened wide before his mouth hungrily returned the kiss. Strong arms slipped around her, holding her tight against his body. She leaned back, taking him with her when she fell against the cushions so that he was on top of her. The doe fumbled with his buttons without breaking their lips apart until she could pull his shirt open and slide her fingers through his fur. His own paws were just as active. When she pulled them over Nick had clutched at her sides. Now his paws stroked up and down, one paw cupping her hip while the other moved up onto her chest.

Judy groaned earnestly against his lips and arched her back slightly when he smoothed over the swell of her breast. She had to break the kiss to gasp for air and he immediately shifted his mouth to nibble along her neck with those unusually sharp teeth. He pressed down onto her so she could feel the heat of his body against her and, more than that, his firm length grinding into the juncture between her thighs. Her mind blanked for a moment even as she wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him down harder. It took the doe a moment to realize he was halfway through unbuttoning her shirt. 

He grabbed the fabric with both paws and looked down at her questioningly. At her nod, he pulled the shirt open and slipped it from her shoulders. Judy sat up just enough for the garment to be removed before collapsing back. Nick's smiled down at her hungrily and she stared up just as lustily. His green eyes twinkled before they drifted down to her torso, clad in nothing but a dark bra. He pushed up so he was kneeling between her spread thighs and shucked his own shirt, crashing down again for another heated kiss.

Fur against fur was so much hotter. She dug her fingers into his back, running one paw up his spine to tangle at the back of his head. The buck shifted to hold himself up on an elbow so his free paw could trace up her stomach. His fingers slipped under her bra to cup her chest directly. Judy groaned and dug her heels into his lower back to grind him against her sex again.

"So needy," he teased with a low growl.

"S-shut up and t-take your pants off," she responded. "I want you."

The buck smirked and pulled back. He undid his belt buckle while she discarded her bra. His slacks fell, revealing a prominent bulge in his boxers that made her mouth water, and the doe wriggled her leggings and sodden panties off. The cool air of the room was soothing on her burning flesh, but she kept her thighs together until his thumbs dug in under his waistband. Only once he rolled the fabric down did she spread her knees wide.

Green eyes dropped to the flushed, swollen lips of her pussy, her clit prominent with her arousal. He licked his lips hungrily. She posed slightly, so close to what she wanted and determined to get it. A paw dipped down, and she spread herself with two fingers to let him catch sight of the soft pink within that she was yearning for him to fill. Judy let her own eyes rake down his body and she gasped happily. His lean muscles and trim waist made him absolute doe fantasy material, and Judy grinned when she looked to his crotch. He was **really** big for a buck. His smooth member stood out proudly, pulsing slightly with his heartbeat. 

"See something you like, Fluff?" Nick smirked. He clambered back onto the cushions and teasingly slapped his thick length down onto her mons a few times.

"You're really big," she mumbled. She took him in paw and stroked a few times, pulling him closer to her needy entrance. "I want you inside me."

He groaned happily and looked down to watch her fingers dance over his length. "Truthfully, this is a bit smaller than what I used to have... It's a bit of a deflating thought."

"Aww, poor baby," Judy cooed. "I'll make it all better." She pulled him a bit closer. "It'll be just fine. You already have a lot to work with."

Nick leaned down, not to move her paw out of the way, but to set his lips around a nipple and suckle softly. Judy cried out softly and squeezed him tighter. Her free paw tangled in his ears, holding him close to her chest. The buck gave her sensitive peak a few more tongue lashings and soft nibbles before swapping to her other tender bud. He was going to drive her crazy at this rate. She pulled him up to face level for a heated kiss that only got hotter when she felt his shaft drag across her vulva. He adjusted slightly, tip finding her entrance. 

The doe couldn't believe this was really about to happen. Sure, it wasn't how she originally imagined it, fantasized about it, but she was about to have sex with Nick. All because that stupid drug turned him into a buck. But still, it had led to this. His thick length started to stretch her wide.

"N-Nick!" Judy choked out. "I'm so happy you became a bunny!" Nick froze with just his head inside her. She opened her eyes after a few long seconds passed without him pushing in further. He was still looming over her, his dick still just barely in her needy sex, but there was an unreadable look on his face. Wait... Actually, it wasn't unreadable. Not completely. He looked hurt, his ears drooped down on his neck.

"I... I didn't mean it like-"

"So," he cut her off with a slight brittleness, "this is just because I'm a rabbit now? I... I think this was a mistake..." He pulled away from her.

"No! Wait!" Judy cried. The buck fixed her with a flat stare, but at least he only sat on the other side of the couch instead of leaving. The doe scrambled up to her knees and took his paw in both of hers.

"I..." She paused, unsure how to continue. "You know I grew up in Bunnyburrow..." He curtly nodded. "My family... Some of them are pretty religious, and not in a constant prayer kinda way but in a fire and brimstone kinda way. A fair number of mammals there can be like that. I can remember a Sunday School lesson where we were told that a female's role was to obediently serve her husband and pump out babies. We had a speaker in middle school who told us that we should have great big families while also telling us that the only responsible decision to make for our families and the Lamb was to abstain from all sex until we were married. They basically wanted us to get hitched right after high school and for the females to be full time mothers. Have plenty of sex after, but don't do it before you're married because no one wants to have an already chewed up piece of gum.”

She bit her lip angrily. "I have relatives who kept asking me when I'd settle down and start a family. My dream to become a police officer, that was just a silly distraction." Her face was screwed up in frustration. "There were the bucks in high school that I dated. Some were nice, but there were two who expected me to drop my dream, get married, and start working on a litter because 'it was my place'." She huffed in a shaky breath. "I was told that inter... that interspecies relationships were evil, and that mammals in them would be eternally damned. That it was perverted. I have a cousin who got whipped bloody because he was caught kissing a squirrel behind the gymnasium, and I have another who was disowned by her parents because she was attracted to does. Don't be different, find a nice buck and settle." 

Judy was close to tears again. "Even my own parents... They weren't **that** bad, but they still pushed for me to give up on being a cop, be a carrot farmer, and marry a rabbit to start a family. They didn't directly do it themselves, but they never stopped the other members of my family from bringing in bucks for me to meet. Every other weekend in high school and every time I'd come home from college it was, surprise surprise, there just happened to be another eligible young bachelor who'd been walking by the farm and was invited in for tea and _wouldn't it be lovely if you two went for a walk, you know he owns 400 acres of prime farmland I bet he could support a lot of kits, oh you look so cute together let me take a picture go on Judy give him a hug!_ "

The doe finally opened wet eyes to look up at him, seeing a face torn with sympathy and a little bit of shock at her outburst. 

"All my life there have been mammals telling me what to do with my life and sexuality, to give up on my dreams and just have a family. That I should feel guilty because I wouldn't be a virgin on my wedding night. It took me until college to figure out the problems with that. And I do want a family someday, but I want to have a career too! Then I met you and you quickly became my best friend, and I started to just... notice you... as a male." Her voice turned bitter and her gaze dropped down. "And all those thoughts came rushing in again. I'd fought and fought and fought against the idea that I had to be just a mom, that my dream was just me being a silly doe. Just a dumb bunny who didn't know any better." She couldn't see it, but Nick flinched guiltily. "I railed against it. All those mammals trying to control me, saying sex was bad and that my duty was to be abstinent until I was married and ready for kits. My sexuality is **mine** , and my body is **mine** to do with as I please. It’s... it’s not inaccurate to say I slept around a lot in college as I found myself.”

She looked at him bashfully, fearfully despite the conviction in her voice just a second before. As if she was worried that he’d judge her for that confession. The fear in her eyes nearly broke his heart. Wide purple eyes watched when he raised his paw, but she let out a soft, surprised chirr of relief when he stroked her cheek gently. “Go on,” he whispered. “Please.” 

She put a paw over his own and rubbed her cheek against his palm. “The thing is... I fought so hard to understand, accept, and establish my sexuality as a female that I never thought about interspecies relationships because I never thought I'd be in one. Out of nowhere I was attracted to a fox, but in my head I was suddenly a little kit again with auntie Mildred loudly telling me that dating a different species was a sure way to end up in hell. And..." Tears silently slid down her face, wetting his paw. "And I thought that if I told you that I liked you... That you'd be disgusted with me. That there was something wrong with me. Then everything went sideways during the raid and you're, poof, almost magically a bunny!" 

Judy let out a sour laugh. "Just my luck! I'm in love with a fox who turns into a buck! Best of both worlds and I can be happy without anyone saying shit to me! But I knew it wouldn't last... The doctor saying that it should be easy to turn you back, I... I couldn't be with my buck, because he was really a fox. I couldn't pursue you now, and the thought of asking you out once you were a fox again? I was so scared you'd think I was disgusting, but then after the last few days..." She looked up at him with tear filled eyes. "It's felt like we've been going on dates and we'd have moments where we end up pressed together and there was this sexual tension. You have no idea how hard I've been trying to keep from just jumping you, and then tonight I could smell you and it set me off because you smell so damn good and you reacted back. I... I realize now that I love you no matter what you look like, and I want you no matter how I can have you. I was happy you became a bunny because I don't know if I ever would have gotten the courage otherwise. So... Please... Even if you can't stomach being with a bunny as a fox, then just for tonight. At least let me have you to-"

She was cut off abruptly when he yanked the doe into his lap with a tight hug. "You du... You beautiful, wonderful, intelligent, caring rabbit. You overthink things sometimes. Here I was worried that you only liked me that way _because_ I became a bunny, and you think you'd disgust me? I love you, Judy. I love you today, I loved you a week ago when my tail was still longer than my ears, and I'll love you when I'm a fox again." His mouth found her own. She hesitantly reached her arms around his neck. Nick held her tighter, leaving her lips to kiss the tears off her face. Hope bubbled within her.

"You mean it?" Judy giggled wetly as his whiskers tickled her face.

"I mean it." He kissed both cheeks then her lips again. "I love you."

"... Say it again."

Nick tossed his head back with a laugh. "I love you. I love you. I love you." He punctuated his words with another flurry of kisses. Her giggles morphed into laughter of her own when his blunt claws started tickling her sides.

"Niiiick!" Judy squealed. The buck didn't let up, tickling her and laying kisses on her face relentlessly. She squirmed in his lap in an attempt to escape, her plush rear grinding playfully onto his crotch. He kept her close with his continual attack until they both toppled to the cushions, breathless. They panted, beaming at each other. The doe cooed softly when she felt something firm press against her belly and leaned in for another kiss. "Say it again."

"I love you," Nick responded.

"Again." She wriggled onto her back and pulled the orange buck on top of her with yet another kiss.

"I love you." His voice was deeper. His tone was hotter. His thick length dragged across her thighs.

"Again," she whispered breathlessly. She reached down between them.

"I love you." There was a hungry edge to his words.

"Again." 

"I love you," Nick moaned. His hips rolled forward. The grey bunny groaned in answer, legs crossing behind his tail.

"A-again..." She hadn't been wrong. He was big for a buck.

"I love you." He swiveled fluidly, finally driving himself fully inside her. The electricity between them from earlier was back, and it sparked and crackled each time his belly brushed against her own, each time his shaft stroked her g-spot on its way to stuffing her full.

"Aga-ah-ah!" 

"I love you!" Nick didn't know if she was going to tell him to say it again and he didn't care. He wanted to say it, just as right now he wanted to give his bunny as much pleasure as possible. He bent over to kiss and suck at her collarbone without stopping his movements. His lips traced up her neck to nibble the base of her ear, something that clearly drove the doe wild.

"Nick!" A sharp cry of his name was all she could manage. She grabbed the back of his neck with one paw, holding his head against her ear where his mouth was working absolute magic. Her other paw slid down his back to grab his firm rear. Nick bucked harder at the contact, his muscled butt flexing against her paw. She knew he still wasn't used to his rabbit body and decided to take advantage of a common weak spot. Judy grabbed his fuzzy scut of a tail and tugged.

"Fuck!" Nick cursed. His next thrusts tore a cry from her throat as he pounded every inch of his dick into her. The buck lifted one of her legs with a paw beneath the knee to spread her wider and she let out a lilting cry when his balls started to firmly slap against her tailhole with every deep thrust. A coil of tension was winding in her stomach, twisting tighter and tighter with each stroke. It snapped when a spit-slickened thumb found her clit and ground against the sensitive bud in tight circles.

Judy shuddered, heat washing through her. She could feel her sex clench and ripple around him in orgasm and she squeezed him tight with both her arms and free leg to keep him as close as possible. The buck moaned into her ear, low and heavy, and liquid warmth flooded her. She came down with the soothing, familiar feeling of a rabbit dick pumping her pussy full. It had been a few years since her last sexual encounter, but the emotions she felt for the male inside her made the long dry spell feel worth it.

"Judy... I... I love you," Nick panted. He leaned up and fell back a little, looking down in shock as he just slipped out of her. "Oh... Right. I don't have a knot anymore. So of course I didn't knot you."

The grey bunny giggled. She'd looked up that little piece of anatomy one night not so long ago when she let her fantasies about her fox partner get the best of her. "Don't worry, Slick. You will soon." He shot her a heated stare at her words that sent a little shiver down her spine. "But you're a buck right now. There are some benefits to that." She rolled up onto her knees with her chest on the back of the couch, arching her rear upwards and wiggling it slightly. Judy smirked when his eyes were immediately drawn to her flicking tail. She could feel his cum start to drip down her thigh. "You may find that you enjoy some of them even more than having me squeeze down on your knot." Luckily, he was quick on the uptake. Nick jumped to his feet and stepped behind her, taking hold of her waist and sliding inside again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always found it terrible how much public school sex education in the bible belt has been influenced by, frankly, religious nut jobs who have no business teaching anyone given their complete lack on understanding, fearful approach to sex, and insulting and misleading way of going about it. The ends do not justify the means. 
> 
> I'm not saying abstinence is bad. Becoming sexually active is a choice, and it's a damned important one that people have to think about hard. They can't let anyone pressure them, and they need to be sure when they make that choice one way or the other, but either choice is valid. It's what I wish I was taught.
> 
> That gum metaphor is a real thing I heard in an official setting. And as much as I rolled my eyes in middle school, as an adult I've taken offense at just how demeaning it is to women. Because that was always the implication. Yes, abstinence was taught to both boys and girls, but it always felt like it was slut shaming girls and not boys. Of course, you shouldn't slut shame boys, girls, or anyone in between; that shit's immoral. But I spent far too much of my life thinking that women always had hymens unless they weren't virgins, and there was a demeaning attitude towards people who had premarital sex. Men get away easy; no physical signs whatsoever, but a woman could be identified as 'impure' if she didn't have a hymen. Since then I've learned that the hymen can fundamentally differ between women, that it isn't a complete barrier except in very rare cases that can require a doctor, that it can wear away through general physical activity, and even that sex for the first time doesn't necessarily hurt or tear the hymen if the woman is aroused enough! How bad is our sexual education system when we're taught that the hymen is basically a layer of clingwrap that completely covers the opening, HAS to be torn through, and that it WILL hurt? Sex shouldn't hurt. Get some fuckin' lube, spend some time licking that clit, and communicate with your partner. 
> 
> Sex education should be a far more comprehensive and scientifically based thing that teaches what sex and the physical functions of the human body are, safe and healthy contraceptive measures, the importance of affirmative consent, and body autonomy. A lack of good contraception education is a root of a major political issue now. Abstinent only education does not work, but making the pill and condoms affordable and available to teens without parental consent massively cuts down on teen pregnancies. I believe abortion is a necessary and vital part of women's health, but regardless of your views on abortion, you have to understand that proper contraceptive education makes it far less common. Don't tell a bunch of hormone ridden teens that condoms don't work and then show everyone a slideshow of people with various STIs as a big "be scared of sex" lesson. That's bad information and fear-mongering. 
> 
> If you have religious reasons for thinking that sex is evil then whatever, but there's always room to learn. If you're christian, that isn't from the bible as much as it is influenced by later writings. St. Augustine spent a debaucherous youth and then wrote essay after essay about how bad he felt about it all and decided sex was sinful. To paraphrase him: 'what a man and woman do together to make kids is good, but it is not performed without evil'. That attitude is even more ridiculous as we've learned that the various people of the LGBT+ community are born that way. It isn't a choice, it's nature. There's no sin there.
> 
> And I'm not saying that it's wrong to feel uncomfortable, nervous, or completely apathetic towards sex! It's important to work through things at your own pace and find your own answer. But it isn't right to go and misinform teenagers just learning about themselves.
> 
> Alright, rant over. Things are heating up and won't slow down for a while as the story I'm trying to tell is about Judy and Nick's relationship, the issues surrounding it, and their sexuality together as they explore it. So expect lots of sexy times as they figure out the differences and work out the kinks.
> 
> Oh, and keep wearing a mask, social distancing, and vote.


	5. The Day After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judy and Nick wake up, fresh to their relationship. Nothing much for it but to stop holding back, head in for the daily check-up, and go on their first real date.

Judy awoke slowly. Dreams faded as she took a deeper breath, the extra oxygen surging a return to the waking world. Her heart sped up, blood pumping through her until she had to stretch in place as her eyes fluttered open. She was lying in her bed. The clock on her nightstand read 10:30 and sunlight streamed softly through a gap in the curtains. Her newly focusing eyes were drawn to dust motes shimmering in the light like fireflies on a summer evening. The bunny was blissfully sore with the hot ache of a good workout in the muscles of her back and core. She hadn’t been lying when she told Nick that bunnies were good at multiplying, and the male had performed exceptionally well for his first time as a buck. _Although, speaking of Nick..._

She shifted slightly, looking for him, when a sleepy grumble sounded in her ear and the arm she hadn’t noticed draped over her pulled the doe back into his chest. Judy purred contentedly and snuggled back against him. His warm breath tickled the back of her neck and now that she was pressed against him, she could feel his morning wood laying thickly between the cheeks of her rear. The doe rolled her hips back gently. A few minutes passed without her grinding electing any reaction, so she exaggerated her movements, teasing the stiff length until his breathing sped up.

The buck snorted awake behind her. “Hah... Judy,” he gasped. His paws settled on her hips to pull her grinding rear back tighter, but she just rolled in his grasp so they were face to face and dragged their lips together again. She thought she could never get tired of kissing him.

“Morning sleepyhead,” she said when they finally parted.

“Mornin’ to you too.” Nick started rolling his hips against her in turn, his dick pressing into her belly and precum messing her fur. She put a paw to his chest and pushed back playfully.

“You have to get ready for your exam,” Judy whispered softly, heat building in her stomach despite her protest.

“The checkup’s at noon. You’re here now. We’ve got,” he turned his head to check the clock, “time for a little fun.” Whatever objection she might have made died in a happy groan when fingers danced down her stomach to cup her sex. His digits expertly stroked her tender flesh; he had been a fast learner last night. Nick’s lips set upon her neck, her collarbone, drifting down to her breasts, kissing her stomach, dipping his tongue into her bellybutton playfully, and then all of a sudden, her legs were over his shoulders and he was licking across her mons. 

Green eyes looked up at her over her trembling stomach, checking to make sure she was watching before laying a gentle lick across her sex. It was such an arousing sight, just as it had been when he first went down on her somewhere around their third or fourth round the previous night. 

His tongue teased her inner thighs and softly split her labia. Nick’s eyes narrowed playfully and the sloppy kiss to her lower lips ended with him moving to her clitoris. Her sensitive pearl was gently teased and lovingly stroked by the flexible muscle, drawing progressively louder gasps from the doe that turned to frustrated whines when he shifted back to kissing her labia and legs. He grinned at her, always enjoying a chance to tease, but returned to her clit at her plaintive noises. 

Judy moaned and twisted her paws into the sheets. His tongue flickered and drew exotic shapes against her bud, revving her pleasure up steadily. It only added to her growing desire when two fingers slipped into her slicked entrance and crooked up. Just as she could feel her peak approaching he backed off, slipping his fingers out before lunging forward with her legs still over his shoulders and now pressing back against her chest as he hilted himself inside her. The doe immediately wailed, body spasming with lightning shooting up her spine from the stretch. The buck didn’t wait for her to come down, rapidly rutting into her dripping sex with firm thrusts that refused to let her orgasm die until he grunted harshly and held himself deep within her. 

Judy staggered down from her climax, little shocks of pleasure crackling through her with every pulse of the dick inside her. Hot seed coated her walls, splashing inside her deliciously. She shuddered until he shifted enough for her legs to slide down his sides, even if she just wrapped them around his waist and held him tight to wring out the last few drops of his cum. When he was finally finished, he rolled them to the side, panting and grinning stupidly. Nick looked at her lovingly before leaning in for another kiss. 

“A very good morning,” he whispered playfully. Judy chuckled, and then she took his head in both paws and ground her chin down from his brows to his nose. Nick blinked. Then his nose twitched, and he was marking her right back. He spent more time using the sides of his jaw than his chin, but he figured it out well enough after a minute. Judy hummed happily, surrounded by the scent of her boyfriend who smelled of her in turn. All while he was still so blissfully inside her.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have the time to bask in the afterglow. Judy squawked when she looked at the clock again.

“Nick! Get up,” she hissed, pushing him back and staggering to her footpaws. Her legs still trembled, and she had to keep a paw cupped over her entrance to keep from making a mess on the floor as his release dribbled out of her. “It’s nearly a quarter past and it’ll take at least a half hour to get to the hospital!” The buck groaned but climbed out of bed and walked past her to the bathroom to turn on the shower. Judy waddled behind with a paw between her legs until she made it to the toilet to quickly relieve her bladder and wipe the fresh cum from her fur before hopping in the spray with him. 

The shower was a rushed affair of shampooing fur that had already been ruffled and mussed from sex the night before and was only messier from the quick morning romp. They had to scramble into their clothes, Nick putting on a clean floral pattern shirt and slacks from his new wardrobe while Judy just slipped on leggings and a t-shirt, but they made it to the subway with enough time to make the appointment.

\-------------

Chief Bogo was at the hospital when they arrived, watching over the battery of examinations with a heavy binder under one arm. He waited with a frown on his muzzle until the last test confirmed that, for all intents and purposes, Nick was a healthy buck in his early thirties. 

“The initial genetic results show that you now have 26 chromosomes, down from the 34 of a red fox but higher than the 22 of a rabbit,” Dr. Racklin said excitedly. “The transformation really has been down to a genetic level. It’s incredible.” The deer continued to scribble and gush at the effects until Bogo cleared his throat and strode forward.

“A moment with my officers if you please, doctor.” His tone was polite but left no doubt that it wasn’t a request and the deer nodded and left.

“So, what did Ramses have to say?” Judy asked.

Bogo sighed. “A lot and none of it good. He was planning the kind of domestic terrorism that would shake the city to its core. While further refining the Nighthowler serum, he investigated the cause of the savage state and determined it to be a reversal to instincts based on genetic history.”

“Genetic history?” Nick repeated doubtfully.

“Look,” the buffalo snorted, “I don’t really understand it myself. The whole thing sounds like a paper-thin excuse for the plot of a bad science fiction story. The point is, Nighthowler worked on mammals at a physical level by effecting a change based on a genetic level, mainly by turning fight or flight responses up to eleven and reducing a mammal’s concerns to their immediate physical needs: protect yourself, get food, water, shelter, and a mate. Within a crowded city and while targeting predators, this resulted in the attacks of the original crisis.” Bogo pulled a thick sheaf of papers out of the binder and flipped through them. “Ramses found by accident that the genetic change could carryover to extreme physical changes, although he didn’t understand the trigger. Basically, he planned to flood the streets with an addictive narcotic with the potential to turn one species into another, and he focused his dealers on selling to predators. He viewed it as having three benefits: some predators would overdose and die, some would go savage and reignite the anti-predator sentiments of the Nighthowler crisis, and some would be partially transformed into herbivores, allowing strawmammals to inflame the city with ideas of prey supremacy as the big bad carnivores were ‘reverting’ to a ‘proper’ state.”

“That’s... That’s horrible,” Judy whispered. 

Bogo nodded. “Ramses first, second, and third is a mammal that hates predators. He didn’t even view the transformations as the best of the drug’s effects; he was more interested in killing or driving savage as many as possible while making money to continue to bankroll his operations now that Bellwether couldn’t embezzle the city to pay the bills.”

The buffalo flipped through a few more pages. “Ramses probably didn’t appreciate how much of a change his drug could cause because he didn’t understand how it worked. He thought all the transformations were completely random. Chances are each case we saw of a partially transformed mammal was from the drug supply contaminated by his own workers. Of course, he only ever worked with herbivores and he’s an extreme prey supremacist, so he viewed predators changing into prey as an outcome that fit his prejudices.”

Bogo turned to Nick. “As far as we know, you’re the most complete transformation so far, although we aren’t sure if it was from a full body exposure or a direct ingestion of Hopps’ blood prior to exposure. I’ve already spoken with the doctor because, while it’s too late to keep your condition a secret, we cannot allow Ramses or any of his lackeys to discover they could willfully transform a mammal’s species until we’ve snapped up every last one of them. The last thing I need is some crazy mammal kidnapping and turning mammals into sheep. At least until we’ve figured out how to turn you back.”

“Okay,” Nick nodded. “So what does that mean for me?”

Bogo shrugged. “Consider your leave of absence extended until you’re cured. Keep your head down while we finish making arrests. It will take a few more days, but we’re moving on the last of the cartel. Hopps will also be placed on paid leave to ensure we have eyes on you at all times.”

“Uh... About that, Chief,” Judy cut in nervously. She stepped closer to Nick and reached out. He took her paw in his and they looked up together. “We have something to tell you.”

The bull’s eyes were wide, darting between their faces and their linked paws. “You... You two...” He ground his palm into his forehead. “When it rains...” His head whipped up to glare at them. “Wilde! Do you intend to accept treatment and go back to being a fox?”

“Of course!” Nick replied, ears flopping back at his boss’s sudden volume.

“And do you two intent to be... romantically entangled even after you’re a fox again? Or is this just while you’re both rabbits?”

“ **No!** ” Both mammals barked in unison. Now they were glaring back up at the buffalo.

“After!” Nick growled. Judy didn’t look too far from growling herself.

Bogo blinked at their angry response and actually smiled a little. “At least you both sound determined. That’s good. Consider the leave a break and figure out your relationship during it. We’ll go over the fraternization policy when Wilde’s back to a fox and ready to return to active duty.”

“F-figure out? What? You don’t think were serious?” Judy spluttered indignantly.

“Listen Hopps,” Bogo said, not unkindly. “There’s a lot more to relationships than many mammals think, and an interspecies relationship can be a particularly hard one. It will take work, and there will be a lot of mammals who look down on you because of it. Take a week once Wilde’s a fox again so you can spend that time working on your relationship without worrying about work. You have a backlog of PTO as it is. Use it.”

“Oh,” Judy said, her anger dying. “That’s... Alright.”

“Thank you, sir.” Nick added.

The chief smiled. “You know, my brother’s been married to a hippopotamus for close to twenty years now. I’m not one to look down on inters. Now get going. I expect you two to be back in tip-top shape in a few weeks.” 

The buffalo departed and they were alone again. Judy looked at the floor, struck with sudden uncertainty until the warm paw wrapped around her own squeezed. 

“Hey, Fluff.” Nick said with a smile. “We’ll be alright.”

“Yeah,” she answered. Determination and love were swelling in equal parts within her. “We will. I guess what’s the plan for the rest of the day?”

“I was thinking the park,” he said even while tugging her toward the door. “Did you know I’ve been dating the most beautiful doe in the city for almost half a day, yet I haven’t even taken her out on a proper date yet?”

\-----------

Savannah Central had several parks to choose from, and the two bunnies enjoyed a leisurely stroll around the central lake of the largest. In some ways it was like the walk home from the hospital the previous day. They were arm in arm and savoring the physical contact, but now it wasn’t based on pretense. Judy wasn’t pretending to avoid larger mammals to press against his side and Nick wasn’t pretending to keep her close so she was away from the street. There was an honesty to their connection that made the intimacy all the sweeter. It didn’t hurt that they were free to sneak the occasional flirtatious comment or kiss. It was paradise.

After nearly an hour of walking and idly chatting, they had stopped at a gelato stand for a sweet snack and retreated to a bench shaded by a tree. Nick eyed Judy’s mint green scoop playfully.

“I almost expected you to ask if they had a carrot flavor.”

Judy rolled her eyes. “I eat other things, thank you very much. Besides, you’re being predictable enough for both of us,” she said, pointing to his blueberry swirl.

“I like what I like,” he shrugged. “Although maybe I should have ordered a carrot scoop instead. The taste of carrots is really starting to grow on me.” The buck ignored his spoon to drag his tongue directly across the sweet in a lingering, suggestive lick, winking at Judy’s flustered blush. 

“Jerk,” she huffed.

“You know you love me.” Rather than respond verbally, Judy pulled him in for a soft kiss. She tasted like sweet chocolate and mint. The doe shivered against him.

“Let’s continue this at my place, Slick.” Judy’s molten gaze caused the buck to flush in turn, and her paw squeezing his thigh had his pants suddenly feeling tight.

“Might have to sit here a minute first.” Judy shot him a confused, slightly hesitant look.

“Am I pushing too hard?” She chuckled nervously. “I tried so hard to not be a stereotypical bunny, but now I’m fighting to not rip your pants off constantly.”

“Trust me Fluff. I’m not complaining. In fact,” Nick whispered directly into her ear. “I promise that you won’t make it to the bed with your panties on.” He nipped the base of her ear softly, coaxing out a heated groan from the doe. “It’s just that, ah, I’m in a bit of an _attentive_ mood right now if you know what I mean, and I’d like to wait it out before I try walking.”

“Attentive...” Judy mumbled in confusion before she looked down and her blush doubled. “Oh,” she giggled, “I see. I guess you really were a ranger scout. You know how to pitch quite the tent.”

“Yes, thank you, I’m hard as a rock right now,” Nick muttered through gritted teeth. His erection was not being helped by the pretty doe giggling against him and taking suggestive licks of her own gelato. The buck narrowed his eyes to stare down at her. There was just enough hunger in his gaze to freeze Judy for a moment. “Bad bunny,” he hissed into her ear, “keep that up and your panties won’t make it past the door.” He was a little surprised her dessert didn’t melt under the heat of her flush. 

Judy bit her lip while looking up at him. “Well then... Promises promises, Wilde.” She scooted across the bench to put a few feet between them. He had to cross his leg to provide his obvious arousal some cover now that she wasn’t next to him. It took biting the inside of his cheek and thinking about every sport he had even vaguely watched, but he was able to surreptitiously pin a half-hard erection under his belt after a few minutes. At least he could walk through the city without humiliating himself, and he turned a vengeful eye on Judy.

But the doe just smiled and helped him up with an offered paw. He shot her a suspicious look as the grey rabbit hugged him and nuzzled against his chest. Nick slowly returned the hug.

“I’m sorry if I’m a little too eager,” she said after a moment. “I guess I’ve just wanted to be with you for so long and I’m a little bit lost in the honeymoon phase so to speak.”

“Again,” he chuckled, “you won’t hear me complain about an active sex life but... Well... Speaking of honeymoons, have you thought about it? Getting married, that is.”

She went very still against him for a moment before looking up with a small half-smile. “Are you proposing to me, Wilde?”

He only had to think for a second. “Yes.”

“Then no.” He jerked reflexively, but she only squeezed him tighter. “Not until you propose correctly.”

“Correctly?” Nick laughed.

“It’s our first date, we’ve spent barely a day together as a couple, and I don’t see a ring anywhere. Hardly the most romantic moment.” She was ribbing him slightly, but his ears fell and he blushed all the same at his own impulsiveness. Yet Judy’s eyes were warm. “What we’re going to do is wait until you’re a fox again and then you’re going to take me on a thousand magical dates, and I’m going to take you on a thousand more, and we’re going to meet each other’s families, and then and only then - when you’re so in love with me that you can hardly stand it - will you propose.” Her nose wrinkled cutely when she winked at him. “And maybe I’ll consider saying yes.”

“You always do love a good plan,” he murmured, leaning down.

“Good plan? Hah! It’s a great one!” She laughed and squirmed in his arms but didn’t really fight being dragged into another kiss. Nick tried to ignore how her soft body was bringing back his problem from earlier as the bunny ground her belly against him playfully.

“Better get you home so you can get rid of that.”

“Well,” he murmured, “I’m not really looking to get rid of it so much as put it in storage temporarily.”

“I think I’ve got just the spot,” Judy grinned. She took his paw and led him around the lake.

Their path took them to the edge of the park and right by the museum district, a place Nick mentally jotted down as excellent date territory, when they had to stop as a crowd of college age rabbits, a few sheep, and even a mountain lion exited one of the museums to walk to a nearby bus. Judy’s ears shot up and she did a double take at one of the mammals leading the group.

“Jill!?!” 

Now Nick had to do a double take at a near mirror image of the grey rabbit beside him that turned their way.

“Oh! Judy!” The does ran together for a big hug. Nick blinked. It really was like seeing double. If anything, the other bunny was slightly softer looking than his girlfriend, was wearing jeans and a button up instead of Judy’s leggings and shirt and had brown eyes instead of purple. If it weren’t for the eye color, he wasn’t sure he could tell them apart if they were dressed the same.

“Why didn’t you call?”

“I’m sorry! We’re just here for a day trip to see the geodes and gemstones exhibit and I figured you’d be working! Plus, Ted and I gotta get all these students back...”

Nick felt a little out of place standing back while Judy chatted with the doe she was clearly very familiar with and probably related to. Probably very closely considering how the does were nearly identical. The mammals from whatever class Judy’s sister taught milled around between him and his doe, some of them going over a quiz they had obviously taken inside of the museum. He hunched down to shade his phone from the sun and checked his email while he waited for his bunny to introduce him.

“Man, Jill’s easily the hottest T.A., but her sister’s a sweet piece of tail too. You think all the Hopps does look like that?” 

“Fuck, I wish Jill would wear leggings in class. Check out that ass.” Nick’s ears perked up and his brows drew down in anger at the whispers of two of the college bucks nudging each other and ogling his girlfriend’s backside. A snarl to do his former predatory form proud ripped out of his throat.

The bucks jumped, ears snapping to their backs, before they turned to see a fellow rabbit staring them down and relaxed slightly.

“The fuck’s wrong with you? Weirdo,” one of the bucks sneered.

Nick just put his phone in his pocket and straightened to his full height, feeling a flash of satisfaction as the bucks’ eyes widened at seeing exactly how much bigger than them he was. Nick stepped closer to loom over them.

“I suggest you two keep your eyes and thoughts respectful.” He glanced down at the quiz held at one of the buck’s sides. “Maybe work on studying a little more instead of just checking out your teacher. Even I know that rubies are made of a type of aluminum, not quartz. Yeash, wasn’t that written on the display? How’d you miss that one?”

The flustered rabbit stared down at his paper before angrily snagging a pen from his pocket and correcting his answer. He glared back up at the much taller buck, opened his mouth resentfully, then wilted slightly under the weight of Nick’s stare and clambered into the bus with his pal following. Nick’s satisfied rumbling was interrupted by a couple of does.

“Nice one. Chad and Tom are such assholes; it was nice to see them put in their place.”

“Ah well, I just don’t really like mammals talking that way.” With his anger dying he was feeling a little uncomfortable at the attention of two females at least a dozen years his junior, even if they were both objectively attractive. One of the them even fluttered her lashes at him flirtatiously.

“Wow, to think such a big city buck is also a gentlemammal. You’ll make a country girl swoon that way,” she winked. _That’s... kind of my goal,_ he thought ruefully. _Sorry to say you aren’t the country girl I’m looking to send swooning though._

“And you’re such a **big** city buck,” the other cut in. “You’re so tall! Are you a basketball player?”

Despite his reservations, Nick was still proud enough of his current profession that he was drawn a little into the conversation. “Actually, I’m a police officer.”

“Oooh, a cop? I just love a mammal in uniform. I bet you look great in it.” The doe put a paw on his stomach.

Nick hid his distaste for the contact, even if his rabbit body betrayed him with a slight stirring in his pants. _Are you serious right now?_ Nick thought crossly at his member. _I have a very attractive bunny that I’m in love with right over there!_ “My uniform probably doesn’t fit right now.” It wasn’t like he had the time or desire to explain how weird his week had been. “I’ve... lost some weight recently.” 

“Well, you look really good. You must hit the gym all the time!” Her paw pushed more firmly against his abs. Nick tried to think of a way to change the subject as he backed up a half step from the doe’s eager and close to indecently wandering fingers. He was getting more uncomfortable even though the thought of the two does was certainly appealing. _Why the hell is this getting me going?_ There was a tinge of panic to his thoughts. _I have a mate! What’s wrong with me? I shouldn’t be thinking about these two does naked!_

Meanwhile, the Hopps sisters chatted while Jill waved students onto the bus. When there were just a few left standing by the steps to the museum the brown-eyed doe leaned in close to her littermate.

“So who is the absolute hunk you brought with you?” Jill whispered while looking at the orange buck up the sidewalk talking with a few of her students. The male looked slightly uncomfortable with the attention, but the brown-eyed doe had to admit that she had trouble blaming the undergrads for flirting. He was really hot.

“That’s Nick,” Judy admitted with a blush. “And yeah, we’re dating.”

“Daaaang girl, get it!” Jill grinned. “Never thought you’d go for the bad buck type. That’s an interesting dye-job. The shirt kinda ruins the look though; I was expecting a black spiked jacket with a full body dye like that.”

 _Oh geez... How do I possibly explain that my fox partner was turned into a bunny and that’s what kick-started our relationship?_ “It’s his natural fur... mostly. I promise he doesn’t dye it.”

Jill looked skeptical but didn’t press the issue. “Either way good for you. Tall and with big paws, too. Must be a real pawful in bed.” She winked in a congratulatory way.

Judy bit her lip with another blush. “He absolutely is. Two pawfuls even.”

Her littermate squealed excitedly before she looked down at her phone and sighed. “Ugh, it’s already time. I’m sorry I didn’t text you that I was coming but this is why. I knew we wouldn’t have any time. Next time you can introduce me to your boyfriend. I’d love to meet him.”

The last of the students with the exception of the two does talking to Nick were being coaxed onto the bus by the other T.A., a tall buck wearing a pawlo and narrow glasses. His ears perked up at Jill’s wistful tone and he walked over. 

“You know, Jill. If you wanted a day with your sister, I can get these guys back to campus just fine. Hi, Ted Hazelson.” He offered his paw to Judy in greeting.

“Judy Hopps. Wow, that’s a firm pawshake you got there.”

“My dad always said a good pawshake was vital to making a good impression. And as much as I may have ignored his advice when I was younger, I’m starting to appreciate some of it in my old age,” he grinned. He couldn’t have been over thirty. Judy couldn’t help but smile back at the self-deprecating humor. Truthfully, he was a pretty good-looking buck. She didn’t think he was anywhere close to Nick, but the pawlo and glasses combo worked for him.

“Ted, I can’t just dump them off on you,” Jill said. The buck just let out a puff of air and waved his paw dismissively.

“It’s no trouble. I can handle grading a few extra quizzes.”

“Still doesn’t feel fair...”

His ears perked and eyes brightened as if he just had an idea. “Tell you what. Finals are next week, so I’ll take care of all the grading this week if you’ll lend me a paw with some of mine next week.”

Jill nodded, smiling slightly. “I could do that.”

“Great! I’ll grab pizza and a bottle of wine. It’ll be fun.” Judy’s brows rose. _Really, dude?_ She snorted softly at the buck’s bold approach. Her sister also had raised brows, but she wore a slightly incredulous grin.

“Theodore Hazelson,” Jill put her paws on her hips and cocked them to the side, ears drooping as she looked at the buck flirtatiously. “Are you asking me out on a date to grade papers?”

“Of course not.” He shook his head but still had a confident smile on his face. “I’m asking if you’d like to grade papers together, then go on a date. Pizza, wine, and a bad movie to make us forget each poorly written essay, run-on sentence, and every student who just circled all the ‘C’s on the multiple-choice section.”

Jill’s grin grew wider. “That doesn’t sound like too bad an idea.”

“Eh, most of mine are, but I do have the occasional gem.” Judy giggled but Jill full on laughed at the pun.

“Alright. It’s a date.”

“Excellent!” Ted flashed a brilliant smile. “Alright, now y’all go catch up. I’m sure the most famous rabbit in Bunnyborrow has all sorts of exciting cop stories to tell.” He gave a flourishing gesture at Judy.

“I’m, but I’m not-” Judy flushed with the sudden attention. 

“Oh please, Jill here gushes about you all the time. Even if personally I think there’s a more interesting doe in your family,” he added with a wink at Jill. The brown-eyed bunny blushed even as he turned away.

The buck gave a sharp whistle that had the two rabbits fawning over Nick jump a little. “Ashley, Kathryn! Unless you two wanna walk back to campus then I suggest you get on the bus in the next five seconds!” The does scrambled past him and he paused on the step, shooting Jill another wink and even blowing a kiss before climbing aboard. The bus started with a rumble and drove off, leaving a smirking Judy staring at an uncharacteristically flustered Jill.

The police bunny grinned at her embarrassed littermate. “Never mind my boytoy, what was that?”

“Gods he’s such a dork... And I’m going to ride him into the fucking ground.” Judy burst out into giggles at the crude comment and Jill joined her a second later.

“Am I interrupting something?” Nick asked as he approached the laughing does.

“Nothing much,” Judy answered. “Nick this is my littermate Jill. Jill, this is Nick. He’s my... uhhh...” _Oh. Right. I still don’t have any idea how to explain what happened to him._

“Boytoy, apparently.” Judy immediately flushed and dragged her ears over her face while Nick just grinned. It was going to take her some time to get used to his improved hearing with his larger ears. “But actually, I met Judy through work and eventually worked up the courage to ask her out on a date.” Nick smoothly breezed through the half-truths. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too!” Jill enthusiastically shook his paw. “I guess with Ted taking the students I’m free today.”

“We’ll get you on a train in the morning, but you can stay with me tonight.” Judy looped her arm through her sister’s and started walking with Nick on the other side. “So tell me about that buck who just asked you out.”

“That’s hardly fair,” Jill countered. “Your buck is right here, and you better believe I’ve got questions!”

“Hmm... A trade then? One question for another? We can catch up a bit first. How’s school been?”

Nick smiled and strolled along next to the happily chatting sisters. It wasn’t how he thought the rest of the day would go, but he certainly liked seeing his doe enjoying herself. Plus, this was the first member of Judy’s family he’d met, and he did want to impress. It only took a few subtle brushes of his paw to steer Judy so that they had a nice walk back to her apartment that just happened to pass directly by a couple take-out places.

\-------------

Nick’s plan worked to perfection, and their meandering path back to her apartment had them passing several restaurants just in time to pick up an early dinner. Now all three mammals wrestled with chopsticks while the does continued their conversation.

“So you two weren’t a thing already?”

“No,” Jill answered. “We’ve been flirting a bit recently but that was the first time he’s asked me out.”

“In front of your sister and entire class too. Pretty bold move.”

Jill giggled. “I like ‘em confident and frankly think he deserves a reward for his courage. Anyway, how long have you two known each other?”

“I met him right after I moved here. Got off on the wrong paw at first since he was a complete ass,” she teased, shooting the buck a look from the corner of her eye. Nick snorted.

“What she failed to mention was how she blackmailed me the day after she met me. Dragged me across the city and nearly got us both killed trying to find an otter,” the buck drawled. Jill’s face twisted in confusion at his words. She was sure Judy said it was a fox that helped her. “I got her back for it though. As much as she likes eating carrots, turns out she isn’t great at recognizing them. I took a couple bars of soap-” A paw slapped over his mouth to cut him off.

“Finish that story and you’ll be sleeping on the floor for a month, Wilde,” Judy growled with her face burning in embarrassment, angry enough that she didn’t notice her slip of the tongue. Jill’s eyes widened slowly. _Nick Wilde..._ Her ears shot ramrod straight.

“Uh, Judy? Would you show me to the powder room?”

The other bunny shrugged and led her to the bathroom. Jill grabbed her paw and tugged her littermate inside, almost slamming the door.

“Okay, what the hell?” Jill whispered. “His name is Nick Wilde? Are you kitting? That’s the name of that fox you said you work with. Does he know that you’re screwing a mammal with the same name? And that fur color! Did you dye him to look like a fox?” The country bunny was more than a little bit outraged. “Are you fucking kitting me?” If felt like Judy was using this buck to act out her attraction to the fox. The whole thing was stalker levels of creepy and just felt wrong, but at least Judy did look pretty chastised.

“It’s... It’s not what you’re thinking,” Judy mumbled. “But you’re right that I haven’t told the complete truth. It’s actually weirder. I didn’t find a buck with the same name. That **is** Nick Wilde.” 

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Judy grimaced. “We were on a raid and things went... weird. He was exposed to a drug that basically turned him into a rabbit. That is Nick Wilde. He’s just a bunny right now.”

Jill’s eye twitched. “Judy, that is one of the most ridiculous lies I’ve ever heard you tell. If you want to fuck the fox then go fuck the fox, I couldn’t care less, but this ain’t fair to that buck.” She couldn’t believe her sister would do this to a mammal, and then to also tell such a bold-faced fib! Jill was much more than a little outraged; now she was furious.

The city rabbit sighed. “C’mon. I’ll prove it to you.” Judy grabbed her sister’s paw and led her back into the room.

The orange buck was still seated but hadn’t waited on them to finish his meal. He was slurping up the last of his noodles when he saw Judy and her furious looking sister. 

“Tell Jill what you are,” his girlfriend said.

“Uhhh... Your boyfriend.” He was a little confused and definitely hesitant with the burning looks Jill was shooting Judy.

“Not that. Secret’s out, Slick. She doesn’t believe me.”

“Oh,” he said, brows rising. He gave a seated half bow. “Nick Wilde, member of the ZPD, once and future fox. At your service.”

“Birdshit,” Jill hissed angrily. “What? Did she brainwash you? Is the sex really that good?” The brown-eyed bunny looked incredibly angry at her twin.

“Hmm.” How to convince her? His ears perked and the buck stood, walking up to Jill. The bunny looked ready to sock him even if her constant glares to the side made it clear that her ire was mostly directed at her sister. He’d taken small bites and chewed with his mouth closed throughout dinner. That was just good manners, but he’d also very deliberately smiled with just his lips to avoid spooking the doe. He leaned in close to her and saw Jill tense. Even as a bunny he was tall enough to impressively loom over the smaller does. “Sorry, cottontail. It’s Karma’s own truth.” He grinned widely with a growl.

“ **GAH!** ” A small fist slammed into his gut as the rabbit leaped away frightfully at the sight of the row of knives in his muzzle. Nick grunted painfully, clutching his stomach and doubling over.

“Jill! You didn’t have to fucking hit him!”

“That’s-it’s-that’s not my fault! What the fuck is wrong with his teeth?!?”

“Okay, okay... The growl might have been a bit much.” He rubbed the sore spot tenderly. “Nice punch by the way. I see Carrots came by her freakish strength honestly.” His bunny was staring down her sister, looking ready to tackle her if she raised another paw. For her part Jill was handling it fairly well, ignoring that initial punch. At least she wasn’t screaming or trying to attack him again, instead settling on looking at him with a lot of shock and just a little bit of horrified disbelief. “Let’s try this again. I’m Nick. I’m a bunny right now but I’ll be a fox again in a few days. I was looking forward to meeting you and the rest of the family when I was already a fox to avoid unnecessary confusion, I figure it’s bound to be a little awkward anyway, but this was a bit of a surprise visit. Nice to meet you.” He held out his paw.

“Nice to meet you too,” Jill said faintly. After a moment she shook his paw hesitantly. “You’re-you really were a fox?”

“Still partly am.” Nick opened his mouth again. Jill’s eyes were wide as dinner plates as she stared at the sharp teeth designed for shearing and slicing behind the buck teeth of a rabbit.

“W-what...” she paused and swallowed. “How? Why? Gods above, I could use a drink.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really enjoying tossing in a handful of OCs. Dr. Racklin is fun to write. Jill is my take on Judy's closest sister, and you can't have family and relationship drama without writing some OCs in the form of her siblings. 
> 
> Everyone keep wearing a mask and social distancing, and now is the time to get a flu shot. The comorbidity of Covid & the flu is a serious issue, and getting a flu shot is one of the most important ways to keep yourself safe right now.


	6. A Mistake That Felt Like it Was OK, Maybe?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hm. Well, it was fun at least. Right? And they wanted it, so it's okay, right? Right?

A few beers and a lot of explaining later and Jill was caught up on the details of Nick’s transformation. Plus, the mood had lightened considerably with the aid of a little tipsiness, and Jill seemed far more comfortable around him. Perhaps too comfortable. Judy was sitting in his lap and basically bragging about his proficiencies in the bedroom, which certainly stroked the fox's already formidable ego, but Jill was extremely engaged as his girlfriend divulged what he was increasingly considering to be incredibly personal details.

“So you could barely wait a day before jumping him? I bet you shower naked too, you slut," Jill giggled, a flush staining her cheeks.

“He just smelled so good and once I found out he felt the same way I couldn’t help myself!” Judy’s cheeks were also stained red, but whether that was from the alcohol or the subject matter was anyone’s guess. “Can you blame me?”

“No,” Jill drawled honestly. “He’s pretty hot.” The doe gave him a flirtatious wink. “And he smells interesting enough that I’m itching to take him for a ride myself.” Her eyes scanned him up and down, lingering below his waist. “Was his transformation... anatomically correct?”

Judy was giggling so hard she was nearly out of breath. “Probably size-wize at least. He’s got a really big dick.”

“He’s also sitting right here, thank you very much, and he thinks that means you’ve had enough.” Nick said with an embarrassed flush, scooping the bottle away from Judy and finishing the beer himself. The doe groaned in protest. It almost made him feel bad, but they were talking about him like he was a piece of meat! Jill just laughed and sipped her own drink.

“Is that normal for rabbits? Telling your sister you want to fuck her boyfriend?” Both does giggled at his crude words. His body was warmly buzzing. He couldn't deny that sex was on his mind now, and his girlfriend's plush rear in his lap wasn't helping. “Judy made it sound like not a lot of mammals in Bunnyburrow approve of open sexuality.”

“Yeah, the loudest ones, who just so happen to be a lot of the ones in charge.” Jill gulped down more beer. “Personally, I think sex is fun, and I don’t care one way or the other whom you take to bed. Bunnies have an extremely healthy sex drive, so it's something we're all used to. It’s mainly the religious nut jobs that have a problem with consenting adults having a good time outside of marriage. It used to be culturally accepted to have a little fun without anyone batting an eye."

“Even with a fox?”

Both does grimaced a little. “That... may be a little harder sell,” Jill admitted as Judy nodded. "Speciesism runs deep. It's mainly the church that preaches the whole abstinence and sex only for procreation nonsense, but interspecies relationships have always been frowned upon."

“I’m honestly just hoping Aunt Mildred doesn’t visit when I take him home for the first time.”

“Ugh, I swear. _Auntie Mildew_ sees anything fun and immediately decides it’s wrong. You could take her to laser tag and she’d declare the whole thing was immoral because there were too many smiles. She'd have an aneurysm if she could see me flirting with your boyfriend."

Judy laughed. Then she twisted around in the fox's lap, straddling his thigh and giving him a heated kiss. She turned her head to the other doe. “You want to, though? He's pretty damn good."

Jill shuddered and shot him a heated stare. “Ooohh gods, can I? I don’t know what he looked like as a fox, but he’s one hell of a buck.”

“How ‘bout it, stud?” A soft paw was gently cupping his swelling sheath, and it took Nick a minute to understand she was speaking to him and what she was asking. “Can I show off just how sexy you are to my sister?”

Nick shivered at this unexpected exposure to Judy’s kinkier side, her unleashed sexuality rearing its head. “You want me to have sex with your sister?” His tone was filled with disbelief as the almost equally sexy brown-eyed doe straddled his other thigh.

"Do you want to?" Judy asked, biting her lip.

"K-kinda." This should have been weird. Why was he only getting more excited? "But what about you?"

“She wants you to have sex with both of us.” Jill clarified, her paws joining Judy’s in feeling up his growing arousal through his slacks. “Think you can handle two does at the same time?”

"Does the interspecies angle not bother you?"

Jill shrugged. "I didn't even know an inter couple until college. They were a hedgehog and squirrel couple that I met at a sorority party and found out I had a class with each of them. It didn't take long to see they were two mammals who just wanted to be happy."

"She was a little more outgoing than me in school," Judy said. Their paws had stopped rubbing him and were just resting on his thighs now. "I focused on my grades, working out, and planning how to get into the academy after school. I... Well, I wasn't mean to them, but I guess I still kinda felt like interspecies stuff was wrong, so I was uncomfortable." The bunny looked a little embarrassed and a lot regretful. "I never thought it would affect me personally, so I never bothered to question it too much."

"I think it's easy to fade into the background on things like that." Jill frowned in thought. "No fur in the game, so you don't bother playing. But I'm still friends with Mike and Molly, and they're just as sweet together as they always were. I actually told off Aunt Mildred two years ago. I think she's hated me ever since, but she started one of her birdshit lectures to the kits and I couldn't take it lying down."

"Is that why she gave you a stick of gum for Christmas last year?"

"Oh yeah. You were at the academy for that fight. I cut in and explained that love is love. She tried to speak over me and I basically told her to keep her hateful idiocy to herself."

"Wow... What did mom and dad do?"

"I don't think they were particularly happy, but they didn't say much. Pretty much just stopped us from screaming at each other. Mom wanted to know if I was an inter but she didn't seem mad when she asked. Dad just seemed embarrassed and kept Mildred occupied elsewhere for the rest of the day. You know how he likes to play peacekeeper."

"Okay," Judy hummed. "I was worried about how introducing this one," she jerked a thumb at Nick's chest, "was going to go. Sounds like they're more open to the idea than I thought they'd be."

"I mean, mom said that she first and foremost loves me no matter what, but she also looked relieved when I told her I'd only ever dated other rabbits."

"Oh. Hmmm," Judy mumbled.

This night was just throwing him curve balls left and right. Fun conversation, getting punched in the stomach, explaining his transformation over beers, his girlfriend asking if he wanted to have a threeway with her littermate, and now they were sitting in his lap discussing how their family would react to Judy dating a fox.

"I guess I should be thankful that it sounds like I won't be greeted with shotguns at the door," Nick quipped.

"Nick," Judy said. "I would never let that happen." She pulled him into an intense kiss, as if to show her conviction through her actions. He panted slightly when she finally ended the kiss.

"Frankly, you seem like a decent mammal so far," Jill added. She smirked. "At least not like an obvious creep. I'll have your back on this. It never hurts to have a mammal on the inside. If," she continued with a flush heating her face, "you can convince me you're good enough for my sister."

"Convince?" Nick cocked an eyebrow. Judy giggled.

"You want a mammal on the inside, Nick. So, you need to get inside her first." Their paws slid back to his crotch.

"Leave the puns to me, Carrots." He couldn't fight back a slight moan at their soft touch.

"Hmmmmm, no." She shook her head after pretending to think about it for a moment. "But do you want to fuck us both or not?"

“Jeez, you kinky, horny bunnies.” His thoughts were decidedly male at the image of two females writhing underneath him. He couldn’t keep up the teasing attitude for long as he hardened under their attentive paws. “Is this what dating you is going to be like? Should I expect to get passed around to any other Hopps females open to some interspecies fun?”

“Hell no,” Judy frowned. “This is different. Jill’s my littermate. We shared a bed for 18 years. I just want to show you off to my favorite mammal. Second favorite, considering you of course," she said, her expression turning shy but with a slight grin at her words. 

"Love you too, sis," Jill added in good humor. Judy just stuck her tongue out at the other doe before looking back at him, part excited, part hopeful, and definitely part horny. That look made it feel like this was important to her. Shouldn't he feel weirder about this? Why was he only excited? 

"What about this Ted?" Nick asked Jill. "You think he'd be okay with you sleeping with another mammal after he just asked you out?"

Jill just smirked. "He either takes me as I am, or he doesn't. Helps that I've already heard a story or two. He's not as innocent as the pawlo and glasses make him look."

Nick was still hesitating. He turned to his girlfriend. “Would you..." Nick swallowed. "You’d sleep with Ted if Jill brought him to the burrow?” 

Judy turned questioning eyes to the other bunny rather than answer him. That kind of bothered him. Jill shrugged with a smirk. “Let's see if he can convince me to keep him first. After that, if he can tear himself away from me then feel free. If he passes, I intend to spend a few weeks breaking him in, but I don't mind returning the favor." She grinned dirtily, one paw drifting across her belly. Nick didn't know exactly how he felt about that answer; he was quickly learning that his prim and proper partner also had a very active sex drive. He really wasn't thrilled about the idea of her sleeping with someone else, but if it made her happy and was with his permission... Maybe that wouldn't be so bad. Plus, he realized, if Judy was busy with Ted then that might mean Jill was free, and she certainly seemed eager to get to know him better. Very eager based on the one paw feeling up his half hard member while her other stroked his chest. He wondered if she was as enthusiastic in bed as Judy was. _Is something wrong with me?_ Nick thought through the haze of pheromones. _This feels good. Why does this feel so good? Why am I kind of okay with this?_

“You have threesomes with each other often?” Nick asked groggily. 

“No,” Judy giggled shyly. “Just a few times. The first was after she had gotten dumped and was feeling pretty blue about it, so I convinced the buck I was seeing to show her a good time. Take her mind off things. Not that it took a lot of convincing.”

Jill shrugged playfully. “It cheered me up a lot, but I think the happiest one there was the lucky buck. Now it's just a thing if we're in a sharing mood and have a nice buck to show off. You must be something special if one night was all it took." The brown-eyed doe leaned in and he got a kiss from a second bunny when just a few days ago he had never expected to get a kiss from the first.

His fox side still felt a little uneasy at the situation, at how quickly the night took a sexual turn, but his rabbit biology was reacting happily to the does in his lap enthusiastically rubbing his clothed erection. His buzz certainly helped his body react. Jill's lips were soft, and her tongue was licking at his lips. He was quickly swelling to full mast.

“Ooohhh,” Judy cooed. “I think he likes the idea.” She pushed her littermate's paw against his bulge firmly, the brown-eyed rabbit breaking the kiss to giggle and giving him a few long strokes.

_Whatever. Screw it. It’s not like this is the weirdest thing that’s happened this week._

Both ladies gasped and giggled lustily when he wrapped an arm around each waist and stood with them tossed over his shoulders. Greedy paws ran down his back and cupped his rear as he carried them to the bedroom.

He tossed the does to the bed and immediately shucked his shirt, but Judy bounced up and pulled him into a heated kiss before he could work on his pants. It wasn’t really a problem though, as he felt her small paws undo his belt. The buck’s pants and boxers hit the floor as a gloriously soft paw finally grasped him directly.

“ **Godsdamn!** ”

He opened his eyes to look past Judy’s shoulder. Jill was sitting on the edge of the bed, her own shirt halfway unbuttoned and eyes locked on his dick.

“You weren’t lying, Jude. He’s big.”

His girlfriend tittered. “I know, right? It’s why I haven’t been able to keep my paws off him.”

“I thought that was because of my charming personality and hilarious jokes," Nick quipped.

“Nope," she shook her head. "Those just had me looking up ball-gags on Mammalzon.”

Nick rolled his eyes, but Jill laughed, her warm breath teasing his member. She had stripped and settled onto her knees in front of him. The buck bit his lip. His girlfriend’s soft paw stroking him while her equally attractive sister knelt in front of him eyeing his cock like a particularly tasty carrot. It was an image straight out of a porno. Judy noticed the heat in his gaze.

“Horny fox,” she murmured. “All worked up at the thought of screwing my sister.”

“Not a fox right now, sweetheart.” She looked so eager. He... he couldn't deny her, could he? Was this how much she wanted this? Did it matter that he wasn't sure? It was an somewhat exciting thought despite himself. 

“Nope. You’re a stud buck who can go back to back to back. So, give her all you’ve got, because I'll want my turns.” She shifted her paw to point his loaded weapon directly at her littermate’s mouth. “Open wide, sis.” She really wanted it, didn't she...

Nick moaned at the hot kiss Jill gave his dick, lips spreading to take him halfway down. The doe pushed deeper with a slight gagging noise. Nick opened his eyes to see Judy’s paw on the back of her sister’s head to push her down further onto his length. His girlfriend's eyes seemed slightly wild. One paw started tugging his cottontail while the other left Jill's ears to put his own paw there.

"Push it in deep, Slick." The buck flexed, tugging the doe down until she'd almost taken all of him. Jill's eyes were lava hot as she moaned appreciatively, sending a pleasing rumble around his dick. _Maybe it wasn't that bad,_ Nick thought.

He cocked an eyebrow even as his hips started to rock. "Dirty girl... You sure about that, Cottontail? I'd feel bad giving her something you haven't gotten." She'd given him a blowjob the previous night, but that was more about laying back and accepting the gift she was offering than actively pumping against her face.

Judy shivered, peeling off her T-shirt. She'd somehow already ditched her pants and panties without him noticing. "Why wait?" She grinned lustily. The bunny slipped down, rubbing against his body until she settled on her knees next to her littermate. Judy lifted a paw to wipe a ribbon of his precum off her sister's face before softly kissing his sack. "You've got two horny does tonight, sweetheart. We're gonna drain you dry, so you may as well have fun with it. Go crazy."

Nick snarled, pulling Jill off him and immediately stuffing himself into Judy's mouth. He took her ears in his paws to pull her down close, ignoring Jill for a second while he groaned at the feel of his girlfriend's lips kissing his sheath. The brown-eyed doe hardly looked disappointed, leaning in to lay her own soft kisses on his sack. "That's it, Nick," she whispered. “Don’t hold back.”

The buck was going to go insane with two sexy rabbits pretty much begging for him. He swapped from bun to bun, each of them just as eager and happy to tease his sack as they were to moan around his length. They almost fought over it, eventually compromising on running their lips up the sides of his dick in unison.

"I-I'm getting close," Nick moaned. The does just mashed their cheeks together and opened their mouths with tongues hanging out cutely. The sight was enough to send him over the edge. He stroked his dick and groaned, cum spurting across the two rabbits' faces. He tried to aim for their mouths, he really did, but he left quite the mess on their cheeks before he gave up and thrust into Judy's mouth to pulse a few times before swapping to feed Jill the next mouthful. Nick stayed hard even after his orgasm trailed off, his bunny body filled with a hormonal cocktail that kept him ready to go at basically any time. But even if he was still a fox, he'd likely still be hard just from the sight of Judy and Jill swiping his cum off their faces and licking their fingers clean.

"Ruttin' rutabagas, I want him inside me." Jill hopped onto the edge of the bed and spread her legs wide. "C'mon now! Gimme that dick!"

The buck knelt on the edge of the mattress without complaint, stroking himself in preparation, but Jill stopped him with a paw pressing against his stomach. Her other paw pointed at her pawbag, which she had carried into the bedroom but discarded at the door.

"Condoms,” she panted. “I’ve got a whole sleeve in there."

Those words actually gave Nick pause, his ears shooting up as he gave Judy a wide-eyed look. The doe in question looked reasonably startled herself, meeting his eyes for a moment before she fetched the bag and dug around inside. They'd been so pent up and their relationship had exploded into physical intimacy so quickly that using protection hadn't been considered by either mammal. 

"I... I've got an implant," the bunny said, pointing at her left bicep with a foil packet between her fingers. "They're supposed to last between four and five years but it's been... Fifty months? Maybe? But the doctor said you weren't fully a rabbit," she added quickly. Nervously. The buck nodded even as he rolled on the condom she passed him. He remembered the doctor saying his chromosome count was different than a regular bunny and that mattered, right? Something about the DNA not lining up? "I think we're safe," Judy said as if she could read his thoughts.

"Damn, Judy. You didn't know but you've been letting him bust inside you raw this whole time anyway? Such a hoe," Jill teased with her tongue out. Nick rolled his eyes and pushed inside her smoothly, causing the doe to let out an ecstatic groan.

"Says the bunny moaning on her sister's boyfriend's dick."

"Packing peanuts, you're thick," Jill mumbled happily. She let out a needy yelp when Judy pinched one of her nipples, the city rabbit crawling to her knees next to Nick. She threw an arm around his back and pulled him into a kiss while her free paw rested on Jill's lower belly, just above her stuffed entrance.

"I can feel it," she whispered. "She deserves a little punishment for that comment." Judy left his lips to pepper kisses across his shoulder. A paw on his rear started pushing his hips forward. "Show her what you can do."

Nick was all too happy to obey. He pushed her thighs wide and pulled out slow and slid deep, drawing a pleased gasp from the rabbit beneath him. Jill was balling up the sheets in her fists and letting out the sweetest little eager noises. The buck chuckled.

"She sounds just like you," he said to Judy. He jerked his hips harder, coaxing out a high cry. 

"Do that again!"

"Yup. Works on her, too," Nick grinned. Judy was staring at him hotly, rubbing her clit in time with the thrusts into her sister. He kissed her again, tasting her breath as she panted. Judy trembled and leaned against his side.

"C'mon Nick. Fuck her like you mean it." She started tugging on his tail, forcing a curse from the buck. He put both paws on Jill's waist and his footpaws on the floor, leaning his weight onto her so he could draw back and slam in hard. The bunny on her back positively wailed, rocking her hips up into every thrust before she stiffened and thumped her leg against the bed. Judy moaned along with her, an orgasm rocking her body from firm grinds of her fingers. Shaking a little, she slipped off the jostling Nick onto the bed next to Jill. Her littermate's eyes were screwed shut, mouth open mid-cry and face twisted in pleasure. Brown eyes flickered open and found Judy's.

"J-Judy! Oh! Ahhh ah! Thank you! He's so good!"

Judy smiled sweetly. "Anytime." She scooched in closer, clasping her paw with Jill's when the other bunny reached out. Judy looked up at the buck screwing her sister cross-eyed. She bit her lip in anticipation for her turn. "You should thank him too."

"Th-thank you, Nick! Sweet cheese and.... it feels so good! Don’t stop!"

The buck growled at the familiar dirty talk and sped up again. Jill's face twisted in ecstasy, Judy cuddling up with her sister and looking up at him eagerly. This was the kinkiest thing he'd ever been a part of, and it was going to drive him crazy. His pleasure peaked just as Jill was crying out again and tightening around him. Nick snarled and held himself deep, moaning deeply through his release. Judy looked on with a hungry smile while Jill groaned low and heavy, settling a paw over her belly with a dreamy look on her face. 

"Thank you," she whispered warmly. Nick was feeling unexpectedly accomplished at how satisfied she looked. In that moment, riding that ego trip, he turned hungry eyes to his bunny. She shivered excitedly under his gaze and quickly clambered to her knees to give him a deep kiss. 

The bunny reached a paw down to pull the condom off and toss it into the wastebasket to the side of the bed before she looked down at his still throbbing length. The doe grinned up at him teasingly. "Poor baby. You fucked my sister silly but you're still so hard. Don't worry, I know just how to help you.” She turned to the panting doe on the bed. “Hey Jill. Get him ready." Judy pulled him into a kiss. To his surprise, the brown-eyed doe on the bed caught her breath enough to sit up and grasp his length. He closed his eyes as Judy deepened the kiss. He felt the other rabbit stroke him slowly while her other paw fished around to the side. Jill quickly found a foil sleeve and tore it open to roll the rubber over his member. He shivered and barely let her finish before he spun Judy around and hilted himself inside her.

"Fuck me, you two are kinky."

Jill seemed to have recovered while it was Judy's turn to gasp and moan. The free bun knelt next to her sister and stroked a paw down her back. 

"We are fucking you." She grinned at him before turning her attention to the bunny on her paws and knees. "Mmm... He's quite the catch. Nice going, Jude."

"Than-urgh... Thanks... Oh... Nick, gods! Uhgnnn" Her noises were getting harsher and the rabbit's arms lost the strength to hold her. Her upper body collapsed forward but the change in position kept her ass presented nicely for the fox. Jill soothingly stroked Judy's ears and watched the buck's thrusting with eyes begging for more. The brown-eyed doe crawled up to him, using his shoulder for support as she got a better angle to watch the action.

"You sure you weren't born a buck? You're a natural," she murmured.

"Cross my heart," he hissed. "Just a former fox trying my best to keep up with my bun before she literally humps me to death." Jill giggled at his words, and Judy let out what may have been a laugh before it dissolved into another moan.

"That would be such a shame. Here's a little hint. She likes getting her tail pulled." Nick already knew that from firstpaw experience, but he grabbed her stubby little cotton ball and tugged anyway. Judy's moaning went an octave higher. "The real trick though is that she loves getting a firm spank while you pull her tail."

"W-wait, Jill I didn't want him to know that y-" Her words cut off in a scream when the curious buck did exactly as Jill suggested, one paw using her scut like a handle to pull her hips back against him while the other paw raised up and slapped against the meat of her rear with a loud **smack**! She immediately clenched down and rippled around him as the spank dragged her into a sudden climax. Nick memorized the moment, glad to have a cheat code to help when he was a fox again who couldn't survive making love seven times in a row. Based on the way they'd been going at it so far, he had serious concerns about his natural body’s stamina. But all of that was forgotten when Jill tugged his head sideways for a kiss while Judy clenched around his length. Nick groaned and pumped his hips, adding another spank as he came into the still twitching Judy.

The buck didn't get a chance to catch his breath before Jill was bowling him over, replacing the used condom with a fresh one, and bouncing in his lap. He grunted and rocked up into her until he found another release, but then Judy was pushing over Jill, swapping in a new prophylactic, and mounting him in turn. Nick was starting to feel slightly panicked through the fog of pleasure. They really were relentless! In desperation, he pulled Jill's hips over his face and pulled out every trick he knew to drive her to release. He soon had her shuddering over him with determined licks to her clit, but Judy's paw was fondling his sack and his rhythm slipped with another orgasm. He had to up his game if he wanted to survive the night.

The buck rolled enough to spill both does onto the bed, rising to his knees and reaching for the quickly disappearing pile of foil packets before pulling Jill back with a firm grip on her tail this time. Apparently, Judy wasn't the only one who like getting spanked, and he needed every advantage he could get. Nick slipped a paw under her front to rub little circles around her clit in time with his strokes and spanks. She bit down on the blanket to muffle the resulting scream, sex rippling around him. He kept her ass jiggling with hard thrusts until he held himself deep and throbbed inside her again. Jill collapsed and rolled over with a lewdly unfocused look on her face, limbs still trembling.

Forcing himself to move, he reached for the final packet and pulled Judy onto her back next to her littermate to push inside her once again. Jill looked only half conscious and Judy was quaking around him. He had finally almost tired them out; he just had to last a little bit longer. Nick's eyes blurred and his head started to swim.

"C'mon Nick... Can't you see how much she wants it?"

His vision refocused. Jill was cuddling up to Judy, both does flushed red from exertion. Judy's eyes were near liquid as she stared up at him with a pleasure wracked face while Jill had a dreamily exhausted smile on her muzzle.

"Can't you give her one more?" Her paw cupped Judy's cheek. "He needs a little motivation, hon. Think you can work him up a little?"

"P-please! Nick!" Judy managed to gasp. "Keep going, keep going! I’m so close! Almost there almost there almost there!" The buck snarled with just a hint of a whine when her legs hooked over his hips.

"C'mon, buck. One more time." Jill ran her paw up his side. "Give her one more."

Despite his earlier reservations about this entire situation, her words lit the final spark in his mind. Nick gritted his teeth and threw every last bit of strength he had left into pounding Judy's hips through the mattress. He pushed himself up on his left paw so he could put his right thumb to her clit. Judy opened her mouth in a silent scream, clenching around him, and he fell into one last tired orgasm. Slipping forward belly to belly with Judy, balls twitching to fire whatever they had left into her rippling sex. The buck rolled to the side and collapsed onto his back, desperately panting for air. 

Judy twisted to press up against him, pulling him into a soft, lingering kiss. "Mmm, you did so good, Nick. I'm really proud of you." Nick gasped into the kiss at unexpected contact against still sensitive flesh, glancing down to see Jill draped over his crotch. The bunny pulled the condom off his spent flesh but paused to kiss his shaft before she tied the rubber off. His tired member retreated into his sheath and he realized that Jill's actions must have been just for fun. He didn't think he could possibly get it up again, and it wasn't like she really did anything about the mess in their fur.

"Please tell me you two are good now." The does both chuckled but thankfully nodded, tiredly shifting so that he was being cuddled on each side by a rabbit resting her head on his arm.

"We're good," Jill whispered sleepily. "Judy wasn't lying. You are **good**. I can barely mo-ooaaahhve..." Her words were choked off by a big yawn as she snuggled against him. "Thanks again, Sissy. Thanks, Nick."

"Of course, Jill."

"Anytime, cutie." Nick was surprised to realize he might have meant it. Was he really okay screwing his girlfriend's sister? _I guess I just did_ , he thought blearily. _I just had sex with a mammal other than my mate...a lot... I'm… I’m terrible… Oh my gods, I’m awful. I am the worst._

"Nick you caaaan't~... can't call a bunny cute even if you screw a couple of us..." Judy was yawning too.

He shuddered slightly but played brave and found his sense of humor. "Not even when I'm a bunny? I feel like that should grant me some privileges." _I’m the worst, I’m the worst, I’m the wooooooorssst._

"Uhhmmmm... Ohhh fine,” Judy sighed. “As long as you're a bunny, too." Nick let out a chuckle at the small win, because it didn’t seem that important that he felt like an absolute piece of shit right now. It was admittedly comfy being a part of the bunny cuddle puddle. He would just walk into traffic tomorrow. They were so soft against him, and the buck let his exhaustion overcome him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmmmmmm... Nick doesn't seem sure about things, but if Judy's okay with it? Surely... It couldn't be... Bad, right?
> 
> As I mentioned in the last chapter of Kinky Tales, I've had a lot of stuff happen that messed with my writing recently. That didn't exactly apply to this chapter. It was basically written, as are the next several, but delays happened. Also, I know how this kind of chapter can be... a thing... in the fandom, but I'm trying to tell a certain type of story. If anyone who reads this far is displeased with the content, then please know I really, really, really thought it through, and that the events depicted here aim to serve the greater story. I tried my best to write this in a way that I thought worked.
> 
> Also, please keep wearing masks even after you can get successful vaccinations. Also, also, most of the Covid vaccines require two injections and you won't be safe until SIX weeks after. ASK QUESTIONS BECAUSE THE ANSWERS ARE IMPORTANT!!! 
> 
> Can we please unite for a few more months of wearing masks to be safe? I believe in y'all. We can do it!
> 
> Although we should probably wear masks from now on even when we have just a cold. Covid has changed the world. The flu will be less serious in America from now on because I can promise you there are people like me who will wear a mask in public for years. Maybe forever.
> 
> This pandemic has fundamentally broken me with regards to what I think is safe.
> 
> I will wear a mask.
> 
> This is the way.
> 
> :P
> 
> Haha, old school emojis. I'm almost thirty. Death approaches me.


	7. The Explanation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some things are learned. It's still gonna be a minute until they both understand where they stand with each other.

The morning was surprisingly sedate, considering.

Sure, he woke up to Judy kissing him while Jill teased and licked his morning wood, and sure, they did drag him into the shower for another quick romp, although it was a mostly paw and tongue based affair considering how they'd run out of condoms the night before, but after that the three rabbits sat at the table chatting and drinking coffee while watching it storm outside.

The buck made a quick platter of toast, potatoes, and eggs for the three to share as they enjoyed the rainy morning, even if he was the only one who ate the eggs. Such a shame. He made a mean plate of scrambled eggs.

Jill talked about her studies as a geology graduate student while Judy asked her questions and nibbled on toast from his lap, all three mammals casually naked. Nick couldn't help but think from time to time that this should have felt weirder than it did, but they were so blasé about it. He wondered how Judy, little miss _I'm-so-embarrassed-by-nudity-that-I-hide-my-face-at-the-naturalist-club_ , could stand to be naked around other mammals, but they were family, he guessed? He never had any siblings, so how was he to know? Maybe sharing your significant other was normal, or maybe it was just a bunny thing. Nick certainly didn’t feel entirely comfortable about it. It must have been a bunny thing. Either way, he wanted to be a good boyfriend, so he swallowed his discomfort and let her take the lead. He also wanted to be a good host to Jill, so they just ate and talked for a few hours. Eventually though, they had to get Jill to the train station and Nick to his check-up. 

Judy and Jill had a lingering hug goodbye at the station before, to the buck’s surprise, the brown-eyed rabbit threw her arms around his waist.

"It was very nice to meet you, Nick." She grinned up at him and he stiffened a little at the paw that snuck a squeeze of his rear. "Can't wait till we meet again at the burrow. I'm sure Judy's got all sorts of things she wants to show you, but I've got a few things in mind I think you'd like."

"Okay, paws off greedy," Judy giggled, pulling Jill's arms off the male and shoving her playfully towards the train. "You've got your own buck to go seduce."

"Bye y'all!" 

They waved until the train was gone. Judy drove them to the hospital next, but she parked in a distant, nearly empty corner of the lot. Not that he was going to complain about a longer walk since she found one of the few shaded spots under a tree. The sun in Sahara Square was no joke. Except, instead of opening her door, she leaned over the console to start cupping his crotch.

"C-Carrots, what're you doing?" Nick asked breathlessly.

"Just establishing my territory," she hummed in answer. She climbed into the well between his legs and shifted his seat back.

"So," she continued, "did you like having sex with my sister?

Nick's eyebrows twitched in confusion. "...H-how am I possibly supposed to answer that?"

"Honestly," she responded before tugging his zipper down. "Ooh, you're already hard! You must've liked it then."

"...I mean, yeah... but you're... aaahh...." The sight of his doe bobbing her head in his lap made him want to say whatever she wanted. Even though it was true that he had enjoyed it, it was just so strange to admit it out loud. He was still confused about it and a growing part of him felt guilty. Although that part was shouted down for the moment by the rest of him at how amazing her mouth felt.

She popped off his cock with a gasp. "If you're very, very good I may let you play with her again, but I need you to know you're mine." Judy spun around, hunched over in the cramped space to grind her rear against his lap. "Are you a good boy?"

"Gods, I'm trying to be." He loved her and would never cheat on her, right? Last night didn't count. She wanted him to do it... Even so... Why did he still feel guilty? That thought raised an uncomfortable question; why did he agree to do it?

The doe giggled. "Who's your favorite bunny in the whole world?"

"You. Easily. 100 percent. No competition." _I love Judy. I do. I do. I’m a good mate._

"Mhm-hm-hm," she smirked. "And which bunny are you going to be dreaming of at night?"

"You. Always and only.” _Bunny of my dreams._ “Um, but what about protection?" Nick groaned. The soft rump rolling against his crotch made thinking difficult. They had to start being more careful; it distantly felt like they had agreed on at least that. But he remembered Judy's molten eyes telling him to cum inside her that first night. A brief picture flashed in his mind of Jill on her back with legs spread wide, asking him to do the same. He throbbed at the thought, but his ears snapped down to his back and his mouth went dry.

Judy seemed to think the stricken look on his face was due to the teasing. With a smirk, she rolled her leggings down just enough to reveal her sex and settled onto his lap firmly." Just tell me when you're close," she grunted as she started moving.

He was hers. This was the rabbit of his dreams. He loved her. He loved her, right? He did! So why the hell did he just think about having sex with her littlermate again? That train of thought was completely derailed by the doe bouncing in his lap. She rode him fast, paws pushing against his thighs as she couldn't get much leverage with her legs trapped together by her pants. The speedy ride was probably a good thing given their semi-public location. Right as he moaned that he was about to finish the doe bounced off him and spun around, but she didn't leave him hanging for long. Soft lips and eager suckles drew out his release, cute purple eyes staring up at him with loving possessiveness. When his orgasm finished, she took his still hard member in paw and ran her chin up and down his length, even lifting up his sack for similar treatment. Nick stared down in confusion before his nose twitched. The floral, cedar, and fresh-cut grass scent of bunny flooded the car.

"Did... did you just mark my dick?" He asked in bewilderment.

"I don't mind sharing my toys now and then, but I do write my name on them." 

Nick chuckled at her words a little breathlessly. He still felt a tinge of panic at his earlier thoughts, but her possessive action actually calmed him down. That was right. He was hers, just like she said. He was hers just as she was his. They belonged to each other. The fox within him agreed happily. Judy pulled back so that he could buckle his pants, the doe tugged up her leggings, and she spritzed them both with scent blocker. His girlfriend popped in a stick of gum, winking at him as the smell of mint overpowered the lingering smell of cum on her breath. She gave him a kiss and grabbed his paw as they walked across the lot to the hospital doors.

Nick's mind was still buzzing. Everything was going too fast as well, wasn't it? He had dreamed about dating Judy, fantasizing that she wouldn't care about the barrier of species. He'd thought, frankly far too often, about asking her out, taking her to dinner at a nice restaurant, and parting with a tender kiss at her door. Working with her like normal except for the occasional flirty comment and wink. Stealing a kiss or two from the bunny outside the locker room before they headed home. Taking her out again and maybe letting the kiss at the door linger. Sliding a paw down her back to cup her waist and pull her in gently so he could tenderly show her his desire. That even though he was so much bigger than Judy he would never hurt her; that even a predator could be gentle. Maybe by the third date he'd ask to come in for coffee so he could passionately kiss her on her couch. Or that she'd offer coffee to him and he wouldn't politely refuse. He was a gentlemammal after all. That she would bring him into her apartment and pull their lips together at last. Judy could be a very proactive mammal. A sexy, unbelievably powerful mammal. 

Instead they hadn't even been dating for a day and he'd had sex with her a dozen times, as well as multiple rounds with her littermate. What the hell was wrong with him? He believed in slow and steady. He'd always taken his time in relationships. Was he really unable to control himself around her? Or was it because... Nick's eyes went wide and all of a sudden, he felt light-headed. It wasn't helped by a cluster of mammals near the hospital doors approaching them. _Oh shit... They have cameras._

A brown furred bunny thrust her microphone into Judy's face. "You're Judy Hopps, correct? Do you have anything to say about reports that your fox partner was turned into a rabbit? Is that buck behind you Officer Wilde?"

"Why are you holding his paw? Are the two of you dating? What are your beliefs on interspecies relationships?" A beaver shoved a second microphone in front of her.

A deer addressed him. "You, sir! Are you really Nick Wilde? Were you really a fox a few days ago?" 

"Officer Hopps! Is that rabbit Nick Wilde and if you were a dessert, what layer of the parfait would you be?"

"Officers! Are you only dating because you're both rabbits? Were you dating before? If not, how will your new relationship reinforce the perception that rabbits are overly promiscuous?" The muskrat who asked that annoying question got several dirty looks from the rabbit reporters around him that he pointedly ignored. In fact, most of the other reporters were giving him surprised or harsh looks.

"How long have you two been sleeping together?"

"Uhhhhh," Judy stumbled as more and more microphones were shoved in their faces. She was floundering under the aggressive questioning of the reporters, but Nick was in no mood to deal with this birdshit right now. Without letting go of her paw, the stone-faced buck pushed through the mammals so that she had a path to walk behind him until they made it through the hospital doors. Several mammals followed them but were quickly cut off by hospital staff explaining that roaming around the halls and shouting was hardly good for the other patients.

Judy was still a little shellshocked when they made it to his appointment and Nick wasn't feeling much better. The doe was clearly uncomfortable with a bunch of shouted questions and microphones in her face, but the buck was distracted by the thought he'd had when they were leaving the car. The paparazzi were just an extremely annoying distraction for him that he didn't wanted to waste time thinking about.

Dr. Racklin entered the room and they ran through the usual barrage of tests and questions. Bogo wasn't with them today.

"What-" Judy paused to swallow, finally finding her train of thought again. "What was with all the reporters at the door?"

"Reporters?" The deer sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm afraid that, like I warned you, word must have gotten out about Officer Wilde's condition. A species-to-species transformation is unheard of and, quite frankly, the most groundbreaking development since the founding of Zootopia." He shrugged. "Mammals want to know."

"They could be more polite about asking," Nick grumbled. “Aw hell. We’re gonna have to tell Bogo about this.”

"I would assume so. If it makes you feel any better, we may have found a red fox blood donor. I believe we will be able to turn you back in just a few more days."

They immediately perked up. "That's fantastic," Nick said. "We might be able to avoid all questions entirely if we can lay low until then."

Judy smiled in relief. "Not that having you be a buck hasn't been enjoyable, but I've missed your foxy face."

Nick smiled back at her. He was very much looking forward to being a fox again and having his life back in order. There was also the thought of his cute doe girlfriend waiting for him, even if... He wasn't sure if they'd jump straight into the same level of intimacy; he really didn't know if he could keep up the pace if they kept going at it like they had been, but the thought of tying the bunny... Nick shivered, blood rushing to his groin, but that brought him back to what he'd been considering earlier.

"Uh, Judy?" Nick asked. "I've got kind of a personal question for the doctor. Can we have some privacy?"

She tilted her head curiously but readily agreed. "Sure thing, Nick. There's actually something I need to take care of as well. Dr. Racklin, where's the obstetrics and gynecology department?"

The deer pointed. "Up a floor and down the hall."

"Thank you," the doe said before she walked out.

"Alright then, Officer Wilde. What did you want to ask me?"

"Well..." The buck scrubbed a paw along the back of his head. How should he put this? "It's just that, well, I mean... So, Judy and I are a couple now."

"Yes, I pretty much gathered as much," Dr. Racklin said with a half-smile.

Nick tilted his head.

"You aren't half as subtle as you think you are. It seemed obvious that you cared for her, but I happened to look out a window earlier and saw you two walking paw-in-paw to the doors."

"Right, yes," Nick mumbled awkwardly. Hopefully that was all that anyone said of their activities in the parking lot. "Well I liked her way before I was a rabbit, so it's not because we're both bunnies." He fixed the doctor with a challenging stare until the deer nodded. "The thing is, for foxes, I guess we go about things a certain way, right? And I found out that maybe bunnies go about things in a different way. But right now, as a rabbit, I didn't really do things the way I'd hoped or expected to do them when I was a fox, and I’m wondering if that has to do with the way bunnies do things…"

The doctor raised an eyebrow as he waited for Nick to get to his question. The bunny's ears were flushed red. He looked around guiltily as he struggled to find the words.

"Why did turning into a rabbit make me so ridiculously horny?" Nick blurted out.

The doctor snorted out a laugh at the outburst. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. What?"

"It's like I'm a frickin’ teenager again!" He couldn't stop now that the floodgates were open. "The first time it just kinda happened. I've always been a believer in taking things slow, but it was like I couldn't help myself. And now she's all I can think about." He bit down to cut off the brief thought of a brown eyed doe. "Which is great, and was already happening anyway, and it's not that it's just physical by any means. I love her intelligence and her drive and her passion and how she's too damn caring for her own good, but the thought of taking it slow just evaporates anytime I so much as touch her paw! I feel like I'm fuckin' sixteen again! Just dumb and horny all the time!"

The deer was trying his best to keep his mirth contained with a hoof over his mouth. "So, you just started dating your partner, whom you're very close with and it sounds like have had feelings about for a while. And your question is why are things getting so physical so quickly?"

"Yeah." Nick nodded, even if the question felt a little ridiculous with the way the doctor described his situation. He was blushing a lot more now.

The deer smiled kindly and put a hoof on his shoulder. "I have a couple guesses on the matter. The first is that, to some extent, you're unused to the hormones of a male rabbit. Foxes have a season, correct? A particular interest in intimacy during the winter?" Nick nodded. "While it's by no means true that all fox pregnancies begin in the winter, a sizable number do. That's not a coincidence. Unlike foxes, rabbits don't have a season. Rabbit births are evenly spread throughout the year, with perhaps small spikes correlating with New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day, and a few other holidays." He chuckled. "Nothing quite like two mammals going out for drinks and dancing to make them forget a condom when they get home, but that's beside the point. Imagine that it's winter as you knew it as a fox, except all year."

Nick's eyes were as wide as they could go. "Oh..." His mind whirled with the implications. If being a buck was like being a tod in winter... "Damn, it's always like this? How the hell do rabbits even leave the house in the morning?"

"We can always get you a supply of hormone suppressants if you'd like."

"I mean..." His eye twitched. "So, if, hypothetically, I was attracted to other rabbits, then that might be because of the hormones?"

"Well... I think that could partly be from dating a rabbit in the first place. You said you've been attracted to her for months before this?" The buck gave a shy but firm nod. "I don't think it's unreasonable to think that the things you find attractive in her are also attractive to you in other does. I'm hardly a relationship specialist though." 

"But with these hormones stirring me up," Nick said quickly, "am I just going to be unable to hold back if another doe approaches me?"

The doctor rolled his eyes. "C'mon, you're a grown mammal. Hormones influence behavior but they don't strip away free will. You’re still you." Nick's ears drooped in embarrassment.

The deer paused for a moment. "Although... Rabbits have historically been polygamous mammals. I guess we still don't know to what extent your brain works the way a fox's does versus the way a rabbit's does, much less a modern rabbit compared to a historical one. Hmm... I wonder to what extent that even could be influenced by genetics..."

"They're polygamous?" 

"Hm?"

"Rabbits are polygamous?"

"Right, uhm, hmm... Hold on a second. I'm a little out of my depth here." The deer left the room for a few minutes, returning with a rabbit in a physician's coat that Nick recognized from his first visit post-transformation.

"Officer Wilde, this is Dr. Oswald. For obvious reasons, I think she's much better qualified than I am to answer your questions."

"Daisy Oswald, pleased to meet you," the doe said with an offered paw.

"Nick Wilde." He shook her paw quickly.

"My colleague said you had some questions about rabbit relationships and general mentality. How can I help, Nick?"

Nick hummed pensively. "I guess that maybe I'm asking to what extent modern rabbits are polygamous. I don’t know. Foxes are monogamous, so this is something I never thought I'd have to ask, but I've had some... thoughts... recently, and I'm wondering how becoming a buck has affected my mentality." It was hard to hold back another blush.

"Ah, I see. Then I think I may be able to help explain. In addition to actually being a rabbit myself I'm a little bit of a history wonk." The bunny took a seat. "As Dr. Racklin told me that he said, rabbits were historically polygamous, but what he didn't say was that there has been a shift over the last few centuries towards monogamous pairs based on a number of factors."

She paused, as if she was waiting for his input. "Such as?" Nick prompted. Perhaps she was the type of mammal who preferred feeling like she was having a conversation rather than giving a lecture.

"Socioeconomic influence for one. Basically, pressure to conform to relatable standards of trading partner species. That’s a whole bucket of worms that rabbits are still dealing with. Urbanization as well." She ticked up her fingers. "Rabbits moving to cities tended to limit themselves to one partner relationships due to space limitations. It's a lot harder to have a half dozen partners cramped into a small apartment. Religious influence as the Church of the Lamb has attempted to reach out towards other species and attempted to bring them into the flock." 

"So… are rabbits polygamous or monogamous now?" Nick asked once the doctor paused again.

Dr. Oswald shrugged. "It's complicated and there’s no one right answer. There are some rabbits who still practice polygamy. Ironically, it's becoming more common in cities than rural areas now. Mammals in the countryside nowadays are, on average, more religiously and socially conservative than urban rabbits. It's certainly more common among rabbits who aren't followers of the Lamb. Plus, the advent of medicinal birth control has made it easier for female rabbits to stay in the workforce while practicing family planning. It's a lot simpler to take a pill or wear a condom than it is to go through a two-week crash diet to naturally reabsorb unwanted embryos."

"Huh." This was a lot to think about. "Then to what extent is polygamy natural for or desired by rabbits? As a fox I would have been horrified by the thought of having sex with anyone other than my mate, but as a rabbit it hasn't felt that way exactly. Maybe more of a constant, nagging guilt. Did it change how I think? Would I sleep with just anyone?"

The doe leaned back with a flirtatious grin. "Is that an offer, Officer Wilde? You want to see exactly how it feels?"

"No! Uh, no. Sorry." He was flushing in embarrassment again. "You seem like a nice doe, but I'm not really interested in basically anyone other than Judy." **That** was a whole other line of thinking he hadn't considered until this moment. Maybe he wouldn't have been quite so quick to agree to the threesome if Judy and Jill weren't nearly identical. He definitely wouldn't have if Judy wasn't actively asking for it. The problem he still had was rationalizing how much he enjoyed it and why he didn’t feel as guilty as he thought he should. Jill wasn't Judy. She never would be. Jill was cute, but she **wasn’t** Judy. He was still a garbage mammal for sleeping with another female.

She smirked. "Yeah, I thought not. Officer Hopps seemed pretty possessive of you and you appear completely besotted with her. But I think that reaction answers your concerns. You just had a doe come on to you but were very emphatic in saying no. And I think I'm a fairly good-looking bunny," she grinned, crossing her arms under her chest. "Maybe your tastes have been slightly influenced, but I wouldn't be worried that you'll cheat on your partner because you're a rabbit now. Some rabbits still tend towards polygamy, but that’s hardly the rule. And cheating never has to do with species. It’s ultimately about communication.”

"A fair point," Nick admitted, though he still felt uncomfortable. He'd have to ask Carrots about this directly. It probably wasn't a smart decision to keep his growing concerns from her. "The, uh, the second part of my question was a bit different." He really wished this doctor wasn't a cute doe for this question. Maybe he'd be less uncomfortable if she were a thousand-year old, wrinkled hippopotamus instead. "As a fox, I would have taken things slow. Physically, I mean. Instead it's been... incredibly and immediately active. Is that normal?"

Her eyebrow was raised. "Well, rabbits do have a very active sex drive, but we're hardly slaves to our libidos."

Dr. Racklin stepped in again. "I actually do have a guess for that if you don’t mind my interruption. My thought was that, well, you're in a new relationship. Fresh romance and all that." The deer shrugged. "It can be hard to keep your hooves to yourselves with a new partner. Combine that with unfamiliar hormones and I think it could explain why you might be moving faster than you thought you would be."

Dr. Oswald smiled again. "It's no surprise. Rabbits have a reputation for a reason, although I can't emphasize enough how there's a difference between having a high libido and being willing to sleep with anything that breathes. I doubt you would be in her bed if she didn't like you. If anything, becoming a buck may have only taken your own actions to the eventual outcome sooner, but it didn't seem like you were on the fence about her before."

Nick hummed in thought. "Okay. I guess that makes sense." He paused. "How did you know about my feelings, Dr. Oswald?"

"I have cable," she laughed. "You've been in enough press conferences together and I've always thought you two were cute together."

Nick blushed. "Oh. Good gods," he shook his head, "I cannot believe my poker face has completely abandoned me. At this, my time of need. Well, whatever, but thank you. Both of you."

"I hope it helps," Dr. Racklin said. "Is there anything else you wish to ask? Would you like a prescription for suppressants?"

"I think that was it. Yes though, I would, thank you. Dr. Oswald, thank you as well."

"Of course, Officer Wilde." The doe shook his paw again and left while the deer wrote him a prescription.

"Alright. Take this down to the pharmacy counter and they'll give you a seven-day supply. Take a pill in the morning and see how you feel. If you feel like it improves your mental state then keep taking them, but it sounds like my colleague eased your concerns."

"Yeah, I think so. For the most part. I just want to see how different it is if I'm thinking more… clearly, I guess. Thank you, doctor."

"You're welcome. I'll see you tomorrow." They both left the room, the deer off to his next patient while Nick collected his prescription before heading for the lobby to wait for Judy. He didn't have to mess around on his phone for long before the doe was at his side, clutching a small paper sack in a paw.

"All good?" Nick asked.

"Yup," she answered.

"What did you need to take care of? Or is that too personal a question?"

Judy shook her head. "It's fine. I scheduled an appointment in a few days to replace my birth control implant. Better safe than sorry."

"Gotcha." He peered at the exit, spotting the lingering reporters waiting for them to exit. "I guess a date in the city is probably not a good idea if we're gonna be followed the whole time."

"Probably not," Judy grimaced in agreement.

"So… what do you want to do about them?"

The doe eyed him up and down. "You know, you haven't gotten to put that buck body through its paces yet. At least, not in every way. Are you feeling up to running like a bunny?"

He grinned. "I could do that. Follow my lead when we get outside."

The bunnies walked through the doors and were immediately swarmed as they had been on the way in. Nick raised both paws in the air to try to silence the questions while he slowly shifted to one side of the hospital entrance. Judy followed the motion and soon they were on one side near a planter with the small crowd arranged in a curve in front of them.

"Mammals, mammals, please!" Nick shouted over their questions until they paused. "I know there's a lot you want to know right now and..." He tilted his head to the side then jerked abruptly. "Oh my gods!" Nick pointed behind the reporters as he screamed. Sure enough, most of the inquisitive mammals turned to look for the source of his distress, and the buck grabbed Judy's paw and tugged her behind as he sprinted in the opposite direction. They almost made it past the building before the first reporter turned around and discovered the ruse. There was a distressed cry followed by the clatter of mammals grabbing equipment and trying to scramble after them, but the speedy rabbits left them in the dirt. 

They sprinted two blocks in a flash, Nick springing along as he got used to a rabbit's gait. "Guess they'll probably stake out the car for a while."

"Probably," Judy puffed out in between steps. "Might be better off leaving it a day or two. Race back to my place?"

"Race?" Nick's next strides sent him bouncing around an oblivious porcupine with headphones in. "You're on."

"Great!" Without bothering to count down or even yell ' _go_ ,' Judy kicked it into high gear and her legs blurred as she sprinted ahead of him. Nick yelped in protest as she quickly took the lead. He sucked in a big lungful of air and pumped his legs faster to catch up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Both the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccine are two injection vaccines that require a waiting period before immunity. Get vaccinated as soon as you can, but follow the instructions with regards to timing to ensure you're safe. Keep wearing masks and socially distancing until then.


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